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Popular Edition, Price 40 cents, 




yound AmericaiM 



Charier Nowmoff* 



HARPER Zr BROTHERS', PUBLISHERS', NEW YORK 



' 



■ 



CHARLES NORDHOFF'S WORKS. 



CALIFORNIA : A Book for Travellers and Settlers, A New Edition. 
With Maps and Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $2 00. 

Conspicuous among our American travellers, aud indeed unequalled by any 
of them for close observation, faithful delineation, freedom from anything that 
savors of the sensational or exaggerated, and for genuine narrative power, is the 
genial and accomplished author of this volume. — Christian Intelligencer, N. Y. 

Mr. NordhofFs plan is to see what is curious, important, and true, and then to 
tell it in the simplest manner. Herodotus is evidently his prototype. Strong 
sense, a Doric truthfulness, a very earnest contempt for anything like preten- 
sion, and an agreeable enthusiasm, are his qualities. — N. Y. Evening Post. 

CAPE COD AND ALL ALONG SHORE: Stories. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50; 
4 to. Paper, 15 cents. 

Have charmed many readers. — Commercial, N. Y. 
Light, clever, well-written sketches. — N. Y. Times. 
Lively and agreeable ; full of humor and incident— Boston Transcript. 

THE COMMUNISTIC SOCIETIES OF THE UNITED STATES, from 
Personal Visit and Observation : including Detailed Accounts of the 
Economists, Zoarites, Shakers; the Amana, Oneida, Bethel, Aurora, 
Icarian, and other Existing Societies ; their Religious Creeds, Social 
Practices, Numbers, Industries, and -Present Condition. Illustrated. 
8vo, Cloth, $4 00. 

Mr. Nordhoff has derived his materials from personal observation, having 
visited the principal communistic societies in the United States, and taken dili- 
gent note of the peculiar features of their religious creed and practices, their 
social aud domestic customs, and their industrial and financial arrangements. 
* * * With his exceptionally keen powers of perception, and his habits of prac- 
tised observation, he could not engage in such an inquiry without amassing a 
fund of curious information, and with regard to facts which have never been 
fully disclosed to the comprehension of the public. In stating the results of his 
investigations, he writes with exemplary candor and impartiality, though not 
without the exercise of just and sound discrimination.— A. Y. Tribune. 

POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 16mo, Half Leather, 75 cents ; 
Popular Edition, 16mo, Paper, 40 cents. 

It would be difficult to find, indeed, a safer guide for a young man getting 
ready to " cast his first ballot."— Nation, N. Y. 

It is a book that should be in the hand of every American boy and girl. This 
book of Mr. Nordhoff might be learned by heart. Each word has its value ; 
each enumerated section has its pith. It is a complete system of political sci- 
ence, economical and other, as applied to our American system. — N. Y. Herald. 

GOD AND THE FUTURE LIFE. The Reasonableness of Christianity. 
16mo, Cloth, $1 00. 

Thoughtful, profound, and lucid. * * * Simple in its form, and written so as to 
be understood by children, the volume is one of the most powerful arguments 
against doubt and infidelity that has lately appeared. It is this partly because 
of its point of view, which is that of a man who looks at life practically and rea- 
sons with the utmost candor and fairness. The author's clear mind and posi- 
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Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 

%W Sent by mail, postage prepaid, on receipt of the price. 




Popular Edition 



POLITICS 



FOR 



YOUNG AMERICANS 



BY 

CHARLES NORDHOFF 

AUTHOR OF "THE COMMUNISTIC SOCIETIES OE THE UNITED STATES" 
"CALIFORNIA: A BOOK FOR TOURISTS AND SETTLERS 
"GOD AND THE FUTURE LIFE" ETC. 







NEW YORK 
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 

1884 



&$ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by 

HARPER & BROTHERS, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Copyright, 1884, by Harper & Brothers. 



In the following pages I have attempted to explain 
in simple language, and by familiar illustrations fitted 
for the comprehension of boys and girls, the meaning 
and limits of liberty, law, government, and human 
rights ; and thus to make intelligible to them the polit- 
ical principles on which our system of government in 
the United States is founded. 

The book grew out of an attempt, in a few letters, to 
instruct my oldest son in the political knowledge which 
every American boy ought to possess to fit him for the 
duties of citizenship. I found my subject much larger 
than I at first imagined ; but interest in the attempt led 
me on, and what was begun originally for one boy is 
here printed for the use of others. I have retained the 
familiar and direct style which one naturally uses in 
addressing a boy, because thus I hope more easily to in- 
terest young people in the subject. 

I believe that free government is a political applica- 
tion of the Christian theory of life ; that at the base of 
the republican system lies the Golden Rule; and that 



IV TO PARENTS AND TEACHERS. 

to be a good citizen of the United States one ought to 
be imbued with the spirit of Christianity, and to believe 
in and act upon the teachings of Jesus. He condemned 
self-seeking, covetousness, hypocrisy, class distinctions, 
envy, malice, undue and ignoble ambition ; and he in- 
culcated self -restraint, repression of the lower and 
meaner passions, love to the neighbor, contentment, 
gentleness, regard for the rights and happiness of oth- 
ers, and respect for the law. 

It seems to me that the vices he condemned are those 
also which are dangerous to the perpetuity of repub- 
lican government ; and that the principles he inculcated 
may be properly used as tests of the merits of a political 
system or a public policy. In this spirit I have written, 
believing that thus "government of the people, by the 
people, and for the people," can be most clearly justi- 
fied and explained. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

To Parents and Teachers iii 

Introduction . 9 

I. Of Society.. 11 

II. Of Liberty, and the Province of Law 14 

III. Of Governments . 15 

IV. Of the Primary and Necessary Functions of 

Government 17 

Y. Of Some Other Functions of Government 21 

YI. Of the Usefulness and Inconvenience of Free 

Government 24 

VII. Of the Different Parts of a Government 28 

VIII. Of Decentralization 29 

IX. Of the Responsibility of the Executive 31 

X. Of Political Parties 34 

XI. Who Vote, and Why 36 

XII. What Officers should not be Elected 38 

XHI. Of Political Constitutions 41 

XIV. Of the Legislative or Law-making Branch 43 

XV. Of Town Meetings 45 

XVI. Of Education 46 

XVII. Of Taxes 48 

XVIII. Of Public Debts and Sinking Funds 51 

XIX. Of Property 54 

XX. Of Money . 57 

XXI. Of Labor and Capital 61 

XXII. Of Usury Laws 65 

XXIII. Of Banks, Banking, and Credit 69 



VI CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

XXIV. Op Bank-notes 73 

XXV. Of "More Greenbacks" 78 

XXVI. Of Commerce 81 

XXVII. Of Diversity of Industries 89 

XXVIII. Of Strikes 102 

XXIX. Of Trades-unions 105 

XXX. The Malthusian Theory 108 

XXXI. Of Prohibitory Laws, so called 110 

XXXII. Of "Local Option" 114 

XXXIII. Of Corporations 115 

XXXIV. Of Confederation and Union 117 

XXXV. The American Political System 121 

XXXVI. Of the Inalienable Eights of an American 

Citizen 127 

XXXVII. Of the Duties of an American Citizen 128 

XXXVIII. Of Trial by Jury ,130 

XXXIX. The Primary Meeting and the Caucus 132 

XL. Of the Importance and Duty of the Mi- 
nority 130 

XLI. Of City Governments 138 

XLII. Of Some Faults in our State Constitu- 
tions 141 

3CLIII. Of Territories, Public Lands, Colonies, and 

Manifest Destiny 142 

XLIV. When we number One Hundred Millions... 146 
XLV. Rules for the Conduct of Deliberative 

Assemblies 149 



APPENDIX. 

I. Constitution of the United States of America.... 165 

II. Declaration of Independence 182 

III. Washington's Farewell Address 185 

Index , 197 



TO 



WALTER NORDHOFF: 









My Dear Boy, 

You are now sixteen ; in fire years you 
will have the right and duty to vote not only for (or 
against) persons, but also upon measures of public pol- 
icy. I should like you to vote and perform the other 
duties of citizenship intelligently, and not ignorantly; 
and to do this it is necessary that you shall understand 
something of the principles upon which our government 
was established, and upon which, of course, it ought to 
be conducted. This is the more necessary, because, if 
you are right,, you will sometimes be in the minority, 
and when the right cause is in the minority, it is of 
great importance that its adherents shall be able to give 
pertinent and convincing reasons for their course: for 
thus only can a minority hope to become a majority. 
In a free state every great political struggle is a contest 
of principles ; and you have only to read such a book 
as the Debates between Lincoln and Douglas to see of 
what extreme importance to freedom and constitutional 
government is the ability to comprehend for yourself, 
and to expose clearly to others, the fundamental princi- 
ples of free government. 

Moreover, you must understand that to the citizen of 
a free state, politics concern themselves in the largest 

A 2 



10 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

sense with the liberty and the prosperity of the people, 
which are sure to be affected by bad laws — and bad 
laws are often adopted with the best motives, and urged 
and supported by men who are as truly patriotic and 
benevolent as they are ignorant. 

It is one of the great merits of our political system in 
the United States that, though it appears at first view 
complicated, it is in fact sufficiently simple to be under- 
stood by all the citizens. In what follows I mean to ex- 
plain to you the general principles on w T hich free gov- 
ernment rests, and the manner in which those principles 
are applied in our own country ; and I shall try to do 
this in such a way that, with a little attention and study, 
you will, I hope, be able to understand all that is need- 
ful. 

At the foundation of all government is Society, and 
of this I must first tell ) T ou something. 



I 

OF SOCIETY. 

1. God does not appear to have created men by chancy 
for we find all mankind to possess certain qualities, faculties, 
and desires, which move and rule them, whether they are sav- 
ages or call themselves civilized, and whether they are black, 
brown, yellow, or white. 

2. One of the principal and most important qualities of 
mankind is gregariousness. This means that men have a 
propensity to gather in flocks or herds ; a propensity also 
of many animals, as sheep, cattle, horses, blackbirds, elephants, 
and some monkeys. This desire for the society of their kind 
leads animals to go in droves — as the buffaloes upon the plains ; 
and it collects savage men into tribes, and civilized men into na- 
tions, which are only larger and more highly organized tribes. 

3. But as man has received from God qualities, faculties, 
and desires which the beasts have not, men are able to do 
something more than herd together; and the rudest tribe of 
savages has laws or rules for the conduct of its members 
which the most highly developed society of apes or black- 
birds or elephants of which we know is without. 

4. Animals have, 1, desire to live; 2, desire for sufficient 
food ; 3, desire to propagate their kind and to protect their 
young ; and, 4, desire to avoid pain, and to live, therefore, in 
the circumstances for which their nature best fits them : in 
other words, to be comfortable. When you see more of men, 
you will discover that some men are very much like animals, 
and have no aspirations or desires which can not properly be 
ranged under the above heads. Such a man I do not want 
you to be. 

5. Besides the desires which we have in common with 



12 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

beasts, and which are necessary to us in order to preserve 
our species from extinction, God has given men other desires, 
and faculties which, if they wish, they may use for their ful- 
fillment. These higher qualities of our lives are not needed 
for the mere preservation of life. Some of those which by 
general consent are regarded as the highest, lead inevitably to 
the lessening of many of our pleasures, and not unfrequently 
to the surrender of an individual's comfort, happiness, and 
even life, to increase, as he may believe, the welfare of his 
fellow -men. Looking at these higher motives, desires, and 
aspirations, and at the degree in which they interfere with 
the happiness or comfort of the body alone, it is reasonable 
to believe, what Jesus taught, that men have something im- 
mortal, destined to live on after the body perishes, and capable, 
after its release from the body, of still greater development 
and higher enjoyments. This something we call the Soul. 

6. Take notice that the soul of man should not obey the 
law of living, but the law of duty. For instance, of all the 
friends of your father and mother who served in the late 
great war, there was not one who, if he had obeyed the mere 
law of living — the animal instinct of self-preservation — would 
not have remained at home, and pursued his usual calling, in 
comfort, with his family about him, and his wealth increasing. 
Instead of that they abandoned their professions, broke up 
the careers they had planned for themselves, left their fam- 
ilies and their comfortable homes, and undertook to face hard- 
ships to which they were unaccustomed, and not a few died 
on the field of battle. They did and suffered thus, not to 
benefit themselves, or to gratify any of the desires or passions 
which men have in common with the beasts, but in the hope 
of helping to maintain a form of government which they be- 
lieved to be pre-eminently calculated to elevate mankind, and 
increase the happiness of their fellows. A buffalo would be 
incapable of such motives : if he fought, it would be from 
greed for food, from a desire for a more comfortable lodg- 
ment, out of jealousy, or in self-defense, supplemented event- 
ually by rage. 



OF SOCIETY. 13 

7. A creature believing himself to possess an immortal part, 
or soul, destined to survive the body, would reasonably seek to 
prepare this immortal part for the conditions under which it 
is to exist. And as the future life is, as we are taught, to be 
lived without the help of the body, it is evident that training 
the soul or spirit consists in increasing by cultivation our ca- 
pacity for those enjoyments which do not depend upon the 
body. To curb the body, therefore, and keep it under con- 
trol, to restrain the lower passions — those which we have in 
common with beasts — and to weed out of ourselves envy, 
greed, spite, covetousness, jealousy, hypocrisy, ill-temper — all 
tending to disregard for the rights of others — would appear, 
aside from the commands and instructions of religion, to be 
the reasonable and prudent course of every man who believes 
himself to have an immortal part, or soul. 

8. But God has so made the world, and so formed man- 
kind that they naturally and inevitably respect and esteem 
most highly those who most consistently act upon this theory 
of life. The whole world is combined to honor Washington ; 
and it is equally unanimous in execrating a merely vulgar and 
selfish trader or politician. 

9. Now I wish you to remember, as a fundamental truth 
in American politics, that the course of life which is thus 
calculated to fit your immortal part for the future and spirit- 
ual life is also that course which will make you a good citizen 
of the United States. 

10. To be a good citizen means not merely that you shall 
give such prudent obedience to the laws as would keep you 
out of jail. It means that you shall in all parts of your life 
live moderately and virtuously ; that you shall " love your 
neighbor as yourself," and therefore do him no wrong ; that 
you shall pursue your aims in life with such moderation as 
to avoid interfering with the happiness of others ; that you 
shall endeavor by your actions, whenever occasion serves, to 
benefit your fellow-men : for selfishness, breeds selfishness, 
covetousness corrupts those who behold it, and liberty can 
only be maintained among a people who practice self-sacri- 



14 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

flee, and to whom a virtuous life seems more important than 
mere selfish success. 

11. To be a good man is your first duty as an American ; 
but you ought also, if possible, to be a wise citizen, and to 
that end you should understand what are the proper powers 
and the proper limitations of government ; what can not as 
well as what can be done by law. For some of the most 
foolish and injurious laws on our statute-books have been 
enacted by good men with a sincere desire to increase the 
happiness of their fellow-beings. We come then, next, to 
the consideration of Liberty and the Province of Law. 



II. 

OF LIBERTY, AND THE PROVINCE OF LAW. 

12. You enjoy liberty when you may say and do whatever 
pleases you and does not injure other persons. If every human 
being were endowed with infallible judgment as to the effect 
of his acts on others, and strength of purpose to avoid every 
thing that could injure his fellow-men, laws would be needless. 

13. But as the judgment of men is fallible and their strength 
varies, and as all men do not think alike, it has been found 
necessary in almost all societies, however rudely organized, to 
declare what shall be held injurious ; and not only this, but 
to declare penalties for such injurious acts. Bear in mind, 
however, that political laws can cover only a part and not the 
whole duty of man ; and that there is no lower or meaner 
rogue than he who studies the law merely to keep out of its 
clutches. 

14. The Congress which sat from December, 1873, to June 
23, 1874, enacted five hundred and fifty new laws, of which 
two hundred and thirty-six were general laws, and three hun- 
dred and fourteen private laws. Many of our state legisla- 
tures are quite as industrious as Congress ; and the multipli- 
cation of laws has become a curse to the country, and has a 



OF LIBERTY. OF GOVERNMENTS. 15 

tendency to bring into contempt, not only the laws, but those 
who make them. 

15. Considering the propensity of men to multiply laws, 
and, often with good- intentions, to legislate upon subjects 
which do not come properly within the limits of law, it is 
proper to tell you that : Laws should be few in number and 
simple in structure ; they should rigidly avoid granting special 
privileges or immunities to individuals, but should be general 
in their application ; and they ought never to interfere with 
the liberty of men to move about peaceably from place to 
place ; to discuss freely public affairs and questions ; to en- 
gage in whatever honest occupation pleases them ; to pro- 
duce whatever seems to them most suitable ; and to exchange 
what they have produced where they please, and for what 
they most desire. These limitations of the law-making power 
no doubt seem to you so simple and so evidently just that 
you will wonder they need to be specified ; but in fact there 
is in every legislative body a constant propensity to overstep 
these limits — a tendency which the united efforts of all the 
wisest men in any state or in the whole country can not en- 
tirely resist. It was noticed^ by an eminent English writer 
that almost all modern reforms in Europe have been made, 
not by enacting new laws, but by repealing a great mass of 
old ones. 



III. 

OF GOVERNMENTS. 

16. Governments may be said to be necessary evils, their 
necessity arising out of the selfishness and stupidity of man- 
kind. 

17. They are of different kinds: Despotisms, where the 
will of one man is the law ; oligarchies, where a few make 
the laws for those subordinate to them ; and free or popular 
governments, where the laws are made by the people, or 
I'ctther by persons they select for that purpose. 



16 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

18. In reading history, you will discover that the less in- 
telligent and more selfish a nation was, the more despotic 
was its government, and the more arbitrary and vexatious its 
laws ; and that as the general average of virtue and intelli- 
gence in a nation increased, in the same degree its govern- 
ment and laws became milder and more just. It is equally 
true that a nation which has enjoyed an excellent government 
mav > by the corruption of its morals, and the consequent 
increase of selfishness and ignorance, lose this, and have im- 
posed on it a worse, and even the worst form of government. 
Thus I wish you to believe that it is only by maintaining, 
and even elevating, the standard of virtue and intelligence 
among our people that we can preserve our free institutions. 

19. Hence the importance that you should be a good citi- 
zen, in the largest sense ; for the example of each tells upon 
all who surround him. If, when you become a man, you 
should be dishonest, unscrupulous, regardless of others' rights, 
covetous of wealth or distinction to the injury of others, en- 
vious, in any way base, your course would help to demoralize 
and debauch the unthinking and weak, which means the 
larger part of those who surround you. This is the reason 
why the course of life of the notorious James Fisk was pe- 
culiarly hateful to good citizens ; his own life they would 
have troubled themselves little about, but the influence of his 
career was pernicious and degrading upon the whole country. 
This is the reason, too, why Napoleon III. drew on himself 
in an especial manner the bitter dislike of thoughtful men 
and women ; why we abhor a political demagogue, a swindler 
in office, or a merely ostentatious rich man : because their 
bad example is contagious, infects the weaker part of those 
who see the spectacle, degrades public opinion, and makes 
vice less odious, and virtue and self-restraint less important 
in the general mind. On the other hand, the example of 
probity, of faithfulness to duty and to principle, in the low- 
est citizen, is valuable and important because it wins general 
respect, not merely for the man, but for those virtues of which 
his life is an example. 



PRIMARY FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. ll 



IV, 

OF THE PBIMARY AND NECESSARY FUNCTIONS 
OF GOVERNMENT 

20. The primary and necessary functions of any govern- 
ment are to maintain the peace and to administer justice, 
which means to protect the orderly and law-abiding part of 
the people in the enjoyment of life and property and against 
the attacks of the disorderly and law-breaking. Necessarily 
it has also to collect from the people, in the manner most 
equal and least oppressive, the money needed to pay the of- 
ficers charged with these duties. 

21. Where the average of virtue, intelligence, and self-re- 
straint is high among a people, their government needs to in- 
terfere but little in their affairs. Where this average is low, 
government always interferes more, by means of police, armies, 
and vexatious regulations. This arises from the fact that 
peace, order, and the security of life and property are re- 
garded as the most precious and necessary possessions by 
every people, and to secure these, men and nations are gen- 
erally ready to give up a large measure of political liberty, 
and to suffer many other and minor evils, such as high taxa- 
tion. On this plea the French people were induced to accept 
Napoleon as the " savior of society," and the common excuse 
for a despotism is that it is necessary to maintain order ; 
which nevertheless it does not maintain, except temporarily, 
and at the monstrous cost of increasing the ignorance and 
helplessness and diminishing the virtue and public spirit of 
the nation, and thus in the end increasing tremendously the 
causes of disorder. Napoleon III. held France by the throat 
for eighteen years, and all the meaner sort of mankind glori- 
fied him as the wisest of rulers ; but eighteen years of liberty, 
even with the greatest presumable amount of disorder, would 

2 



18 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

not have left France as poor, debt-ridden, humiliated, and de- 
moralized as it is to-day. 

22. In our own country, since the late war, the Federal 
Government has been .allowed to interfere in the local affairs 
of some of the states, whose citizens had not sufficient public 
virtue and self-restraint to maintain order among* themselves. 
I wish you to believe that such forcible interference of the 
Federal Government, except for special, temporary, and ex- 
traordinary occasions, as to quell a sudden riot, is unwise and 
dangerous : because it debases public spirit, and enervates the 
orderly part of society, whose highest duty it is to rule and 
to punish wrong-doers. It would be far wiser to let a state, 
or even half-a-dozen states, suffer from misgovernment until 
the orderly part of their communities learned the necessity 
of forming and maintaining a good administration. Cali- 
fornia would to-day be in a chaotic condition had its early 
settlers been taught to depend upon the Federal Government 
for protection in their local concerns. But these, having 
borne violence and lawlessness as long as they could, and 
finding no outside power at hand to help them, at last took 
affairs into their own hands — where such affairs properly 
belonged — hanged the worst criminals, banished others, and 
formed a stable and very highly public-spirited community, 
which, while largely composed of the rudest elements, yet 
developed, as the direct result of this experience, in a singu- 
larly great degree the spirit of obedience to and respect for 
law, which is the essence of what we call public spirit. 

23. In like manner the city of New York was for many 
years ruled at Albany, on the plea that it was unsafe to allow 
the citizens to take charge of their local affairs. But under 
the Albany rule corruption and disorder constantly increased ; 
and it was left in the end for the people of the city to release 
themselves by their own effort from the control of the Ring ; 
and they were actually able to do this, even after the corrup- 
tionists had for years debauched public sentiment, and when 
the Ring were at the height of their power, and believed 
themselves secure in its possession. 



PRIMARY FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 19 

24. It is only where the people have public spirit enough to 
resent wrong, and to give vigorous and instant support to the 
officers of justice, that governments can be efficient ; and it is 
true that no government will be just, economical, or efficient 
unless the general opinion of the people requires that it shall 
be so. Rulers are only men ; the possession of power easily 
demoralizes the best and wisest of men ; and no ruler will long 
be just, efficient, honest, or respectable, who does not feel and 
fear the force of public indignation ; nor will rogues fear the 
laws, unless they are assured that the mass of citizens will vig- 
orously demand the prompt enforcement of the laws. 

25. Thus the city of New York has long suffered from the 
depredations of the criminal part of its population, because the 
courts have too often been corrupt, and the administration of 
the law was lax. A murderer or highway robber, caught red- 
handed, who was allowed to lie in jail for a year before trial, 
and to carry his case through all the courts on appeal, knew 
that his offense would be forgotten before his punishment 
came ; and his fellow-criminals, seeing punishment long de- 
layed and frequently evaded, were encouraged in their vicious 
careers. Thus crime was fostered. But across the Hudson, in 
New Jersey, the courts are more rigorous ; and the effect of 
prompt justice was shown, some years ago, in a case of bur- 
glary. The burglars, New-Yorkers by residence, were caught ; 
the grand jury, which happened to be in session, found a true 
bill against them ; they were at once brought to trial ; and in 
eleven days after their burglary were sentenced to thirty years 
in state prison and safely lodged in the Trenton Prison, with 
no hope of pardon. There was not a burglary for several years 
in the neighborhood. 

26. Back of all laws and all authority must lie a belief that 
in the last resort every citizen will defend his own rights. 
You can not put a corporal's guard at every man's door. The 
thief or robber at bottom never fears the law and the govern- 
ment nearly as much as he does the right arm and courage of 
the man he seeks to injure. This is shown wherever, in our 
own country, any even inconsiderable body of citizens have 



20 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

suffered themselves to be robbed, whether on the highway or by 
rings of swindling politicians. When, on one occasion, three 
masked robbers were able to plunder a railroad train full of 
unresisting passengers in Missouri, other highway robberies 
were presently reported from the same region. The despera- 
does were encouraged in their careers by the quiet submission 
of their victims. They did not greatly fear the law; and a 
single shot from a brave citizen would have checked them more 
immediately than the whole power of the government unsup- 
ported by the citizens. In Montana, in the early days of its 
settlement, the territory for a time lay subject to a powerful 
robber band, whose members had the audacity even to ride 
into shops in Helena, in open day, on horseback, and demand 
tribute from the shopkeepers. They had no dread of police 
or troops, because the people suffered their exactions without 
resistance. But one day a courageous shopkeeper shot dead 
the robber who rode into his store — and that single act, arous- 
ing the citizens, caused the speedy extirpation of the robbers. 

27. Immediately after the late war the newly emancipated 
negroes were threatened with various aggressions from the in- 
tolerant and ignorant part of the Southern whites ; and hav- 
ing been long slaves, they did not at first assert their rights. 
Attempts were made by the United States Government to de- 
fend them ; but this was soon seen to be impossible ; and had 
they not presently learned to defend themselves, society must 
have perished in those states, in spite of the efforts of one of 
the most powerful governments in the world, and of a whole 
bookful of laws and penalties enacted by Congress. Fortu- 
nately for the country, the negroes soon learned their duty in 
this respect. Indeed, they presently became aggressive ; and 
wherever it is understood that they have the courage to strike 
back, their persecutions have ceased. 

28. It is only where the mass of the people resent the viola- 
tion of law and order, and are prompt in coming to the help 
of the officers to enforce the laws and put down wrong-doers, 
that free government is secure. Where the people are care- 
less, and submit readily to wrong, the law soon falls into dis 



OF SOME OTHER FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 21 

repute, rights are invaded, and disorders are encouraged. Hence 
in a free community the citizens can not delegate to police or 
other law officers the whole duty of maintaining peace and or- 
der ; they must hold themselves ready at all times to assist by 
their countenance, and if need be by their personal efforts, the 
officers whom they have charged with the execution of the 
laws. This does not imply the obligation or the right of citi- 
zens to take the law into their own hands ; but that they must 
promptly insist on the proper officers doing their duty, and if 
need be help them, acting under their authority. 



V. 

OF SOME OTHER FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 

29. The primary and necessary functions of government are, 
as I told you in the last section, to maintain the peace and exe- 
cute justice between the different members of society. 

30. Under this head come the army, navy, police, and the 
conduct of official intercourse with foreign nations, and in our 
country with Indian tribes — whom we have always treated as 
foreign nations, by which course we have retarded their ad- 
vance into civilization, and caused endless Indian wars and 
constant corruption. 

31. But all civilized governments are charged with yet other 
duties, which, it has been found, they can perform, if not in a 
better yet in a more uniform and convenient manner than 
private citizens, and whieh are also incidentally of political 
importance. These duties are : to conduct the post-office — 
by which intercourse by letters, and the dissemination of 
printed information, is made uniformly easy and cheap all 
over the country ; the public or free education of yonth ; the 
maintenance of a light-house system ; the protection and im- 
provement of harbors ; a large body of scientific observations 
which require to be conducted systematically during a great 
number of years in order to be valuable ; the survey of lands, 



22 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

and the recording* of deeds, which are the tokens of owner 
ship in land ; the care of the public health, and the prevention 
or abolition of nuisances, and quarantine or the means to keep 
out infectious diseases ; the care of roads and bridges ; and 
some others. 

32. Some of these matters we leave to the Federal Govern- 
ment ; others are assigned to the states ; and others yet are 
deputed by these to the city and county governments. 

33. I wish you to remember that private enterprise would 
probably perform all these offices as well, and many better 
than the government. For example, in California and Nevada, 
Wells-Fargo's express has for many years carried letters, be- 
cause the public there believed that it would convey them more 
rapidly and securely than the post-office, and was willing to pay 
an extra rate for the security. But over the whole country it 
is doubtful if the mails would be delivered with the same gen- 
eral uniformity of speed and regularity and cheapness by pri- 
vate persons as by the government ; and this is the legitimate 
excuse for the existence of the post-office. 

34. Because we assign to the government some duties, there- 
fore, which private citizens could and often would perform in 
a better manner than the government, this does not prove that 
the government ought to extend such operations and intrude 
into the great field of private enterprise. And yet, you must 
know, there is a constant tendency toward such extension. 
Thus it is maintained by some persons that the government 
ought to become a carrier of parcels, and thus assume the 
functions of an express company. Others wish it to take pos- 
session of the telegraph lines ; yet others imagine that it ought 
to own and manage the railroads. Various reasons lead men 
to these notions — such as impatience under delays or incon- 
veniences ; disappointed business rivalries ; hopes of gain by 
selling out at a large price to the government; a liking for 
grand operations, such as the government alone can carry on ; 
and a vague and ignorant belief that the government can really 
transact business better than private persons. 

35. I give you below the main reasons why a government 



OTHER FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 23 

should be strictly confined to its proper functions, and why we 
should oppose all attempts to impose upon it other duties 
which lie outside of these : 1st. It would have to increase very 
greatly its staff of servants, which increases the patronage, 
which means the power of bribery, possessed by the rulers ; 
and their means of corrupting the people, and thus encroach- 
ing upon our liberties. 2dly. It would greatly increase the 
amount of money to be handled by the government, and thus 
make the possession of power tempting to bad men, which is 
another means toward the corruption of the people. 3dly. It 
would make the people dependent, and deprive them of incen- 
tives to ingenuity and enterprise, and lead them to look to 
some power outside of themselves for the management of their 
daily lives. All these are serious evils ; and if we had to choose, 
it would be far wiser to turn the post-office, roads, light-houses, 
the public education, and all other matters of that kind over 
to private enterprise, than to allow the government to assume 
still other functions, such as telegraphing and carrying express 
parcels, or managing the railroads. 

36. It is of the utmost importance to the perpetuity of free 
government that the people should be left to do for themselves 
whatever they can, without the interference of the government. 
Free government is not, at any given time, the most convenient, 
as I shall show you further on ; but it has this transcendent 
merit, that under it alone can abuses be cured without revolu- 
tion or the disorganization of society. For instance, the peo- 
ple are just now agitated about the abuse of power by rail- 
roads. We shall remedy this class of evils, slowly no doubt, 
but surely, and without revolution ; but in a despotic govern- 
ment the railroad question would perhaps upset the govern- 
ment; and it would at any rate become mixed up with the 
question of the existence of the government itself. We in the 
United States may not, at any time, have all the physical con- 
veniences which we might have for a while if the government 
did every thing for us ; but we have the means of peaceful 
progress ; the certainty that we shall slowly but surely solve 
all the difficulties which press upon all civilized nations alike ; 



24 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

and solve them without revolution — which means, without per 
manent injury to society. 



VI 

OF THE USEFULNESS AND THE INCONVENIENCE 
OF FREE GOVERNMENT 

37. What we call a free government, one in which the peo- 
ple rule, and in which much is left to the people, has there- 
fore this extremely important advantage, that it forces them 
to be self -helpful ; and obtains peaceful progress, not by the 
costly and after all ineffective interference of the government, 
but by the only permanent means, the determination of the 
people themselves. Thus government " of the people, for the 
people, and by the people," educates a nation in courage, en- 
terprise, a strong sense of duty, self-restraint, the habit of obey- 
ing law, and the capacity and readiness to act together for pub- 
lic ends. Free government is a school of all the manly virtues. 

38. It works also another and equally important result : It 
maintains peace amid change, and allows the reform of evils 
without resort to revolution ; because where the whole people 
take part in electing their rulers and law-makers, all feel equally 
bound by the laws at any time enacted, and if any feel these 
laws oppressive, they get patience from the knowledge that 
open discussion will in time bring its remedies. Under a des- 
potic government wrongs can be righted only by violence and 
revolution. Under a free government like ours, all wrongs can 
be righted by argument. Hence the freest government is like- 
ly to be the most peaceable, orderly, and permanent. 

39. Our own history, compared with the history of other 
nations, proves this to be true. We enjoyed unbroken peace 
at home for more than seventy-five years, from the acknowl- 
edgment of our independence to the year 1861, and in that 
time were engaged in but two insignificant foreign wars. 

40. Moreover, the war of the rebellion could never have hap- 



USEFULNESS OF FREE GOVERNMENT. 25 

pened had the whole people of the Southern States been al- 
lowed to vote for or against secession and rebellion — had free 
government existed, that is to say, in those states. For that 
part of the people who were then slaves would have voted 
unanimously against secession ; and with free and fair discus- 
sion — such as would have been had the negroes strengthened 
the Union vote — no state would have cast a majority for se- 
cession, least of all South Carolina, a majority of whose peo- 
ple were blacks. 

41. Free government is troublesome to its citizens, because 
it imposes upon every man duties of a public nature, to which 
he must give time and intelligent thought. In the measure 
that all the people thus give up time and thought to their po- 
litical duties, in the same degree will their government be just- 
ly and honestly administered. Gross selfishness, such as leads 
men to abandon their political and public duties, in order to 
devote their whole time and energies to their own affairs or 
pleasures, is therefore, as I have already several times pointed 
out to you, a disgraceful and dangerous vice in the citizen of 
a republic. 

42. A despotism, like that from which France so long suf- 
fered, is easily endurable to the meaner kind of men, because 
it saves them from thought upon matters concerning the gen- 
eral welfare. A despotic ruler, moreover, is apt to attend care- 
fully to the minor conveniences of the people : he provides 
public baths for them ; regulates arbitrarily the price of pro- 
visions ; prohibits monopolies — except those he himself en- 
joys ; and in many ways does for them, wastefully, and with 
their money — for of course he has none of his own — what 
they ought to do and could do more cheaply for themselves. 
Meantime he thus makes them incapable of acting intelligently 
and effectively in great perils, disables them from remedying 
abuses, demoralizes them by encouraging their selfishness and 
love of pleasure, and thus prepares the way, logically, for some 
such great and disgraceful catastrophe as has left France hu- 
miliated, burdened with debt, with the loss of a large part of 
her territory, and, worse than all, with a population unfit for 

B 



26 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

self-government, after eighteen years of what a multitude of 
short-sighted people pronounced a " splendid reign.' ' 

43. A wise and beneficent despot may for a time greatly 
and rapidly increase the material welfare of a people ; by his 
power to command obedience, he may, if he lives long enough, 
impose upon them new habits of thought and action, or even 
a different civilization ; but it is always at the expense of 
qualities which are absolutely necessary to the life of a nation, 
and with the result of leaving his subjects unable to maintain 
the existence of society if the despotic head should be sudden • 
ly removed, or if the state should suffer serious attack from 
without. Doubtless the Incas greatly benefited the Peruvians, 
among whom they introduced some important arts of civiliza- 
tion. But under the despotic rule they established, a handful 
of Spaniards not only overthrew the government, but when 
they had conquered the rulers, the people, too long the subjects 
of despotism, lay prostrate at their feet, and, being subjugated, 
perished from the earth. 

44. Thus nations, as well as individuals, need liberty and re- 
sponsibility to make them strong. A boy who is coddled by 
his parents ; who sits behind the stove in winter when others 
are playing in the snow ; who lies late abed, and has his 
pockets full of candy ; who must not go into the water until 
he can swim ; and whose precious life and health are the ob- 
jects of his own and his parents' incessant solicitude, may look 
with pity upon his neighbor, who runs about barefooted, gets 
up early to feed the cows, has few clothes and no candy, and 
must work for his food ; but all human experience and history 
show that the hardier boy has by far the best chance of be- 
coming a useful man, and making an honorable figure in the 
world. His early life has been full of inconveniences, and 
perhaps disagreeables ; but the overcoming of these has hard- 
ened his frame, trained his will, strengthened the moral side 
of his nature, and prepared him thus to withstand trials and 
temptations under which his tenderly nurtured neighbor would 
sink. 

45. I wish you to take notice that there are in every free 



USEFULNESS OF FREE GOVERNMENT. 27 

country a great many persons to whom the duties and respon- 
sibilities of citizenship are irksome ; and who, too ignorant 01 
thoughtless to see the evil results of dependence on a govern- 
ment, seek to avoid temporary evils and inconveniences by 
delegating to the government greater powers, and seeking to 
establish it as a kind of earthly Providence, to guard their pri- 
vate affairs, and make their lives easier. 

46. Thus we in this country do not yet know how best to 
manage our railroads ; and these powerful corporations in some 
cases have oppressed parts of our population. There are peo- 
ple who seek to cure this evil by making the Federal Govern- 
ment take possession of the railroads, or by making it build 
new lines. They would, to avoid a temporary inconvenience, 
put the transportation of products into the hands of the gov- 
ernment ; forgetting that government does not transact even 
its legitimate work economically and efficiently, and that to 
put the vast business of transportation into its hands w r ould be 
to corrupt it, to give it the means of corrupting and abusing 
the people ; to give to a bad ruler monstrous power, sure to 
be w T ickedly used ; and, after all, to secure no advantage which 
can not be got by other and safer means. 

47. In like manner a persistent effort has been made to put 
the business of telegraphing into the hands of the Federal 
Government. Not only would the purchase of the present 
lines be very costly, and their management by the government 
most certainly less satisfactory than now, but this scheme 
would greatly increase the number of office-holders, and con- 
sequently the means of corrupting the people. What is of 
yet greater moment, it would give to the party in power en* 
tire control over the public news, and enable a weak or an un- 
scrupulous ruler to poison the very sources of public opinion 
by giving false or partial reports of passing events, thus making 
the people incapable, in an important emergency, of forming 
a just opinion of the conduct or misconduct of their rulers. 

48. In France, Napoleon went but one step further when he 
regulated the price of bread, and forced bakers to sell at a rate 
fixed by himself. No doubt it was a convenience to a poor 









28 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

man to get his bread for less than it was worth, but it demoral 
ized him, and helped to make him and the whole population 
incapable of independent and judicious political action. 

49. In some of our cities the city governments own the mar- 
feet spaces where provisions are sold, as though there were any 
more reason for thus controlling the market for meat than for 
dry -goods. But these market-places which are owned by a 
city are generally filthy, shamefully mismanaged, and a source 
of political corruption ; while those in private hands are clean 
and well-managed. 



VII. 

OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF A GOVERNMENT 

50. Government falls naturally into three different depart- 
ments : That part which makes the laws ; that which executes 
them, or carries them into effect ; and that which administers 
justice, or interprets the laws between man and man. 

51. In a rudely organized society or tribe, the chief or head 
man assumes all these functions : he gives orders, which are 
the laws ; he enforces these orders ; and he sits as judge in 
disputes between members of the tribe. Under any despot- 
ism, the ruler exercises the same powers as the chief of a tribe 
of savages ; but necessarily he acts through agents, his favor- 
ites, who make life still less tolerable to the subjects. 

52. In order to maintain a free or popular government, it is 
necessary that these powers shall be lodged in different hands ; 
that the body which makes the laws shall have nothing to do 
with their enforcement ; and that the judges shall be a body 
independent of both the legislative and the executive branches 
of the government. Where this division of powers is well es- 
tablished and carefully guarded, if at the same time the nation 
has sufficient intelligence and public spirit to hold the rulers 
it chooses to a strict account, a people's liberties are reasonably 
secure, and they are able to make their government as honest 



OF DECENTRALIZATION. 29 

and efficient as they please to have it. For at the elections 
they are able to remove those legislators who enacted bad laws, 
or that executive officer who carelessly or wickedly failed in 
the proper enforcement of the laws. Thus the people not 
only rule, but are easily able to distinguish where the fault of 
misgovernment lies, and to apply the remedy. In our own 
government, this great division of powers is very clearly made : 
in the Federal Government, Congress enacts the laws, but can 
not execute or enforce them ; the President enforces the laws, 
but he does not make them ; and the courts of the United 
States construe the Federal laws, and apply them in disputed 
cases. 

There is a still further subdivision, which is of equal impor- 
tance to good government, and which is called Decentrali- 
zation. 



VIII. 

OF DECENTRALIZATION. 



53. It has been found advisable, by experience, to still fur- 
ther subdivide the powers necessarily intrusted to govern*- 
ment ; to limit the general, or, as it is usually called, the cen- 
tral government, to the performance of certain offices or duties 
which apply equally to all parts of the nation ; and to confide 
other powers and duties, having only a local application, to sub* 
ordinate, but in their sphere independent governments. 

54. Thus, in our own system, the Federal Government at 
Washington exercises powers very strictly limited, leaving oth- 
ers to the state governments ; and yet others to the county 
and even to the township governments. 

55. This subdivision of power and authority is called De- 
centralization ; and experience has shown that this political 
device is of extreme importance, for two reasons : First, it is a 
powerful and the best means of training a people to efficient 
political action and the art of self-government ; and, second, 
it presents constant and important barriers to the encroach- 



30 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

ment of rulers upon the rights and liberties of the nation ; 
every subdivision forming a stronghold of resistance by the 
people against unjust or wicked rulers. 

56. Take notice that any system of government is excellent 
in the precise degree in which it naturally trains the people in 
political independence, and habituates them to take an active 
part in governing themselves. Whatever plan of government 
does this in a high degree is good — no matter what it may be 
called ; that which avoids this is necessarily bad. 

57. France has for many years been a glaring example of a 
most vicious system of government, and this under the so-call- 
ed republic as well as under the empire, because her Repub- 
lican rulers, as much as her emperors, rejected decentralization 
and local self-government, and adhered to a system of central- 
ization, which made and makes liberty impossible. For in 
France the central government appoints all the local officers, 
and the condition there is as though the President of the Unit- 
ed States should appoint not only the postmasters, revenue 
and law officers, who are properly a part of the Federal execu- 
tive, but also the governors cf the states, the mayors of cities, 
the supervisors of counties, and even the justices of the peace 
and local police. You do not need to think profoundly to see 
that independence and free government would be impossible 
under a system which thus removed the pettiest local officers 
from the censure and condemnation of their neighbors, and 
made them responsible only to the chief authority at Wash- 
ington. The first time we had a bad man in the presidential 
chair he would be tempted by the favorable circumstances to 
play the part of Napoleon, and make himself master of the 
state. Nor could the people, without great difficulty, and prob- 
ably revolution, resist him. 

58. To make liberty secure, the powers and responsibilities 
of the executive ought to be plainly limited and defined ; and 
ought to be such, and no greater, that even a bad man in the 
executive chair could not, during the term for which he is 
chosen, do serious detriment to the republic. For constitutions 
ure made to guard against bad officers, just as laws are made, 



OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE EXECUTIVE. 31 

not to interfere with the pood, but to restrain the vicious and 
ignorant. 



IX. 

OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE EXECUTIVE. 

59. The executive is the head and ruler of the political com- 
munity. He is so called because he executes or enforces the 
laws which the legislative body enacts. "With us the President 
is the chief executive of the United States; the governor is 
the executive head of a state ; and the mayor is, or ought to 
be, the executive head of a city. 

60. Large powers are usually, and ought always to be, given 
to an executive or ruler ; these powers should be, and in con- 
stitutional governments are, strictly limited ; but within the 
limits fixed in the constitution the ruler should have the ut- 
most discretion ; for thus only can he be held responsible for 
faithfully executing the duties of his office. Responsibility 
can never be greater than the authority given. Thus you can 
^see that to tell a general to win a battle, and leave him to make 
his own plans, is to fix upon him a large responsibility, because 
his authority is practically unlimited. But to order him to 
win a battle according to certain plans imposed on him by a 
council of war would be to cramp and limit his powers, and 
in the same measure to lessen his responsibility — for, if he were 
beaten, he might justly say that the plan of action in accord- 
ance with which he was compelled to fight was not the best, 
and that defeat was not his fault, but the fault of the council, 
which impaired his liberty of action ; hence he would not 
probably exert himself to the utmost. 

61. One of the most vicious and dangerous defects in a 
scheme of government, therefore, is a mixed and ill-defined re- 
sponsibility. Thus if the executive is intrusted to two or 
more persons, confusion and corruption are sure to result, be- 
cause it is then impossible to fix the blame for misconduct 
upon any one officer. A board or commission, as an executive 



32 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

composed of a number of persons is called, is certain to be 
both inefficient and corrupt. This is because it is more diffi- 
cult to bring several persons to a prompt decision than one ; 
and because the blame for inefficiency or misconduct is shift- 
ed from one to the other, to the confusion of the public, which 
can not tell whom to punish. 

62. It is another vicious defect to take away from the ex- 
ecutive head the appointment of his subordinates, for he can 
not justly be held responsible for the conduct of persons se- 
lected by others than himself ; and being deprived of what is 
of the essence of just authority, he is pretty certain to lose that 
strong interest in the conduct of affairs which he is compelled 
to feel when the eyes of the people are fixed upon him alone, 
and he in his single person is held responsible for the admin- 
istration of the public business. 

63. In a w T ell-ordered free government, therefore, the execu- 
tive head, being chosen for a specified time, and having duties 
and powers clearly defined and limited, ought to possess the 
power to appoint and remove his subordinates at will. In that 
case he can be justly held responsible by the people for the 
management of affairs. 

64. In our own Federal Government, the Senate has an ad- 
visory power in regard to appointments made by the Presi- 
dent (but none as to removals) ; and to that extent the Senate 
is a part of the executive. This power was given in the Con- 
stitution, because those who framed that instrument were more 
fearful of the tyranny of a despotic executive than of the worse, 
because less responsible, tyranny of a numerous body like the 
Senate ; and believed it necessary to guard with especial care 
against usurpation of power by the President. If they lived 
at this day, they would probably wish to remove even this 
slight check upon the appointing power, because they would 
see that there is but little reason to fear an attack upon our 
liberties by the President, who has a limited time to serve, 
and may be impeached for misgovernment ; while it becomes 
constantly more desirable to Hx responsibility for misgov- 
ernment upon a single person, in order that the people may 



OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE EXECUTIVE. 33 

more easily understand upon whom and how to visit the pun- 
ishment. 

65. During the administration of President Johnson, the 
Congress adopted a "tenure of office" law, which prohibited 
removals from office by the President without the consent of 
the Senate. The result was, however, not permanence in office, 
but the removal of many good officers who had fallen under 
the President's dislike, and the appointment in their places of 
incompetent men who were favorites of senators or representa- 
tives, and to get whom into place they persuaded the Senate 
to agree to removals. Thus the public service was debauched, 
and yet the President was able to say that he had the counte- 
nance of the Senate in this work ; and blame could not be fast- 
ened upon him alone. A more wily and unscrupulous Presi- 
dent than Mr. Johnson might have very gravely injured the pub- 
lic service under this law, and still managed to escape blame. 

66. It is proper to repeat to you that the powers and author- 
ity of the Executive under the Federal Constitution are so lim- 
ited that even the worst man in that office can not, without 
exposing himself to impeachment and removal, cause serious 
harm to the republic during his term of office ; and that the 
unjust exercise of the powers which of right belong to him 
would make him so odious to the people that they would at 
the end of his term refuse to re-elect him. The easiest way to 
defeat this proper result would be to place checks upon him, 
which would make him irresponsible for misgovernment in the 
eyes of the people, 

67. Most of our state constitutions and many city charters 
are faulty in this, that they deprive the chief executive of the 
power to appoint even his most important subordinates. This 
is done on the plea that the people, who are made to elect 
these subordinates, have thus greater power ; but, as I shall 
show you farther on, this is a great mistake, and the cause of 
constant corruption in our local politics. 

3 B2 



34 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 



X. 

OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 

68. In a free state there are usually two political parties. 

69. These have different names, but their motives are inde- 
pendent of names ; and it may be said that one of the two 
great parties in a free state is composed of men who desire 
change, and the other of men who cling to that which is. As 
temperaments differ, so men are either Whigs or Democrats, 
Democrats or Republicans, according as their characters lead 
them to be conservative, dreading change even when it is for 
the better, or progressive, welcoming change even if it is for 
the worse. 

70. There is, however, in every free state a third party, lit- 
tle heard of, without organization, which does not seek office, 
holds no meetings, and owns no banners. It holds the bal- 
ance of power, and it silently decides the elections, and on the 
whole in the right way. This party is composed of the citi- 
zens who think for themselves, who look on at the strife little 
moved by partisan appeals, and on election day deposit their 
votes for the man or the policy which on the whole appears 
to them likely to best further the good of the state. This 
party is the terror of professional politicians, and often their 
confusion. The larger it is in any community, the better will 
public affairs be managed, for it is this party which punishes 
inefficiency, corruption, or maladministration of any kind, de- 
feats the caucuses and scratches tickets when corrupt men are 
nominated. It is to this party I wish you to belong, whether 
you are a Democrat or a Republican. 

71. Party government is necessary in a free state. The or- 
ganization of political parties is the only means by which the 
sense of the people can be got at elections upon questions of 
public policy ; and by party government only can responsibil- 



OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 35" 

ity be fixed upon political leaders, so that these may receive 
approval or condemnation. A non-partisan government is the 
dream of weak and amiable men ; it belongs to an ideal con- 
dition, in which all men shall be unselfish, and sincerely de- 
sirous of the public good. In the present condition of man- 
kind, a non-partisan government — one in which both or all 
political party leaders should share — would be, and has been 
wherever it was tried, only an admirable and effective device 
to conceal corruption, because it becomes then the interest of 
the leaders of both parties to cover up wrong, both having 
their share of public plunder. Non-partisan boards were a 
favorite device of the New York City Ring. 

72. A political party appeals to the citizens with what we 
call a platform, which means a statement of the policy it de- 
sires to see carried out. Necessarily it also nominates men to 
enforce this policy in case they are elected by the people. 

73. If party leaders always declared their opinions and. in- 
tentions openly and honestly, and if they nominated only 
their most capable men, the duty of the citizen would be very 
simple. But a political platform is often an ingenious jumble 
of words, intended to attract men of opposite sentiments, and 
naturally candidates nominated on such platforms are not 
likely to be men famous for positive principles. In such 
cases the citizen has to choose the least of two evils, and take 
comfort in the thought that a country is not badly off in 
which the people do not find it necessary to decide upon vital 
principles. It is quite certain that in a free government like 
ours inefficiency or corruption will be punished by the people 
just as soon as they become really dangerous to the nation. 
Reform of evils is a slow work in a free state; because the 
mass of the people are engrossed in their own affairs, and 
conservative in their habits of thought, which means that they 
dislike great and sudden changes, even if they appear to be 
improvements. This spirit is an admirable one : though often 
inconvenient and sometimes costly, it gives stability to polit- 
ical and social institutions ; and stability is a main condition 
of progress. Thus the people of the United States came very 



36 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

slowly to the opinion that slavery ought to be extirpated A 
beneficent despot might have set the slaves free by a single 
mandate ; but as he would have acted regardless of the opin- 
ions of the mass of the people, his edict would probably have 
caused a revolution, or at least grave and long-continued dis- 
orders ; whereas, in our slow republican way, we discussed 
the question for thirty years ; but when slavery struck at the 
national life, the nation presently consented to abolish the 
evil. 



XL 

WHO VOTE, AND WHY. 



74. Women, minors, paupers, and insane persons have ic 
general no vote in the United States. 

75. In some countries the electoral franchise, as the right 
to vote is called, is still further limited to persons who can 
read and write, or to persons possessing a specified amount of 
property, or paying a certain annual rent for the premises 
they occupy. 

76. Property qualifications originally obtained in a number 
of our states, but they have gradually been abolished. 

77. An educational qualification is proposed in some states, 
and will probably be adopted in many within the next few 
years. Where public or free schools are made accessible to 
the whole population, there would be no injustice in requiring 
that only those shall vote who can both read and write. 

78. Minors, or persons under age, and paupers are not al- 
lowed to vote because they are dependent ; and it is presuma- 
ble that they would vote under coercion, and not according to 
their independent judgment. Moreover, a person incapable 
of managing his private business ought not to have a voice or 
influence in public affairs. It is probable that women have 
been denied the vote for the same reason — because the greater 
part of them are in a dependent condition ; and the law has 
taken no note of exceptions in their case. 



37 

79. General manhood suffrage, which prevails in the United 
States, is required by justice, and is necessary to the perpetu- 
ation of peace in a community or nation. By his vote each 
man has his influence upon those affairs which are common to 
all the citizens ; if he is outvoted, he is still satisfied, because 
it was his hope to outvote his opponents, and it is his hope to 
have the majority with him at another time. 

80. It is sometimes urged that only those who possess prop- 
erty ought to be allowed to vote taxes and appropriations for 
public purposes. This proposition has an appearance of jus- 
tice ; but, besides being generally impracticable, it rests upon 
a wrong view of society. It supposes a degree of meanness 
and bad spirit in the poor, and of intelligence and liberality in 
the wealthy, which we do not find in actual life ; and it would 
facilitate a division of men into classes, the poor arrayed 
against the rich, which, if it existed, would make free govern- 
ment almost if not quite impossible. 

81. Suppose even that the poor were not only the most 
numerous, but also the least intelligent and the most selfish, 
which is not true : it is still a fact that the rich and intelligent 
possess great influence over their poorer neighbors, by reason 
of their greater means and knowledge, which it is their duty 
to use for the general good. Any regulation which would 
make it unnecessary for them to use this influence, or to take 
that part in political affairs which is necessary to give them 
their natural and just predominance (arising from the posses- 
sion of wealth and intelligence), would be an injury to the 
commonwealth. 

82. If general manhood suffrage any where leads the poor 
to vote money out of the pockets of the rich, wastefully, or 
for needless or corrupt purposes, the reason is that the rich 
have abdicated their proper place and influence in political 
society, and have selfishly given themselves to mere money- 
getting or a life of pleasure, by which they endanger not only 
themselves, but, what is of greater consequence, the stability 
of the community. It is an additional argument in favor of 
general suffrage if it compels the wealthy and intelligent, as an 



33 POLITICS FCR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

act of unavoidable self-defense, to exercise that influence in 
political affairs which justly and naturally belongs to them; 
and if it reminds them that their prosperous fortunes bring 
with them duties and responsibilities. 

83. Take notice that a free state or republic can not remain 
prosperous if the more fortunate of its citizens withdraw them- 
selves from political duties to devote their lives to money-get- 
ting or to pleasure. Take notice, too, that when a rich man 
complains that his poorer neighbors — many of whom he prob- 
ably employs — vote against his interest, you will find that he 
conducts himself toward them selfishly, and thus loses the in- 
fluence which his wealth naturally gives him if he rightly 
uses it. 

84. XJnder our system the states have the exclusive power 
of declaring, each for itself, which of the citizens shall vote ; 
being prohibited only from excluding persons on account of 
race, color, or previous condition of slavery. They can not, 
however, give the franchise indiscriminately, for the Federal 
Government has the exclusive authority to declare who shall be 
citizens. But any state may adopt an educational or property 
franchise or condition, only making it equally applicable to all 
its citizens. The advisability of enacting an educational qualifi- 
cation for voters is now discussed in several states, and by many 
thoughtful persons, and will probably be generally adopted in 
time. 



XII 

WHAT OFFICERS SHOULD NOT BE ELECTED. 

85. In order to enable the people to take an intelligent and 
real interest in politics, it is necessary that they shall have to 
elect but few persons. 

86. The persons who compose the law-making body ought 
to be elected, and at frequent intervals, in order that they may 
come fresh from the people, and know their will ; also, the 
law-making body should be numerous, so that responsibility 



WHAT OFFICERS SHOULD NOT BE ELECTED. 39 

may be more easily fixed upon each member by his con- 
stituents. 

87. The executive head of the community, be he President, 
Governor, or Mayor, ought to be elected by the people, and 
probably at less frequent intervals than the legislative body, 
as our Federal Constitution provides, because thus the govern- 
ment gains in stability of purpose, without danger to liberty. 

88. The judges ought in no case to be elected, but should 
be appointed for life or good behavior by the executive. 
Thus only can the majesty and dignity of the courts of justice 
be maintained. It is absurd and wicked to degrade a judge 
by forcing him to appeal to the voters for election; because 
justice has nothing to do with political parties, and ought to 
be beyond the influence of partisan strife. A v^ourt does not 
deal with policies, but with principles. 

89. It is sometimes urged that a President or Governor or 
$tayor may appoint an improper person as judge ; and this is 
true ; but even a bad man, placed for life in an exalted and 
entirely independent position, is likely to conduct himself well ; 
and an executive officer, though he might make a careless or 

, bad appointment to a temporary office, will think twice before 
he selects for a life office, and one so important as a judge- 
ship, a man whose career, if it should be disgraceful, would be 
a constant reproach to' him who created him judge. 

90. The officers subordinate to the executive ought not to be 
elected, but appointed by their chief. Otherwise there is con- 
fusion in the government, because chief and subordinates de- 
riving their authority from the same source, election, there 
arises necessarily division of responsibility, and the public 
business is left undone or is corruptly done. 

91. The provisions of our Federal Constitution are very 
wise upon this point. The President may appoint and re- 
move even so low a grade of officers as postmasters and minor 
revenue officers. It has sometimes been proposed to make 
the place of Postmaster elective — but to do so would be to 
make these officers irresponsible ; and as the President could 
not remove them for incompetency or corruption, because 



40 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

they would hold their places independently of him, and from 
the same source which gave him his, you can easily see that 
the Post-office Department would be exposed to the grossest 
malmanagement, without the possibility of a remedy. 

92. What is true of this is true of all the executive de- 
partments. No officers charged with enforcing the laws 
ought to be elected, because they would thus be independent 
of their chief, be he President, Governor, or Mayor. The 
business of a government does not differ in this respect from 
that of a merchant or a railroad company ; and no merchant 
could successfully conduct his business if his clerks, book- 
keeper, and porters were appointed and removable, not by 
himself, but by his customers. 

93. But in many of our states this blunder is made ; and 
the people are obliged to elect many minor executive officers, 
and even those persons who form the cabinet of the Gov- 
ernor ; and, as though to breed the extreme of confusion, in 
New York and some other states these subordinate officers 
are chosen at different times from their nominal chief, and 
are thus not merely independent of his will, but often his 
political opponents, disagreeing with his policy, and naturally 
inclined to make him inefficient by opposing or carelessly 
carrying out his orders. 

94. This foolish system makes government difficult, favors 
corruption, and screens inefficiency, because it divides re- 
sponsibility among many persons ; and it is the cause of 
almost all the misgovernment from which so many of our 
states and cities have suffered and are still suffering. 

95. It seems to have been the device of ingenious political 
demagogues, helped, as these usually are, by well-meaning 
but ignorant people, who were taken with the plausible ap- 
peal that to make the people elect all their officers would be 
to give them more power over public affairs. So long as it 
is tolerated in any part of our political system, so long the 
baser sort of politicians will continue to impose their " slates " 
upon the voters, disable these from exercising an intelligent 
control over their rulers, and make government a mockerv 



OF POLITICAL CONSTITUTIONS. 4] 

96. For the people, busy with their own affairs, have not 
leisure to scrutinize the characters of a number of candidates 
presented to them on the same ticket ; the press, occupied 
with a great variety of public interests and questions, is 
equally disabled. Every man, of perhaps a dozen, on a ticket, 
uses his influence to elect all the others, bad and good, as 
well as himself, and thus the popular vote is stultified. See 
how different is the case in a presidential election. Then the 
people are asked to vote for but three persons — the President, 
Vice-President, and a Member of Congress ; and the charac- 
ter, abilities, political principles, and history of these three 
individuals receive the closest scrutiny from the press and 
public speakers during the canvass, so that every fault or 
evidence of unfitness is brought to light, and the people have 
a fair chance to vote intelligently. 

97. Only the chief executive officer, in any system, ought 
to be elected by the people ; and upon him should be placed 
the grave responsibility of selecting the subordinates by whose 
help he is to carry on the public business. If then he fail, he 
and his party may fairly he held responsible by the people, 
and punished at the next election. 



XIII. 

OF POLITICAL CONSTITUTIONS. 

98. A political Constitution is the instrument or compact 
in which the rights of the people who adopt it, and the 
powers and responsibilities of their rulers, are described, and 
by which they are fixed. 

99. The chief object of a constitution is to limit the power 
of majorities. 

100. A moment's reflection will tell you that mere majority 
rule, unlimited, would be the most grinding of tyrannies ; the 
minority at any time would be mere slaves, whose rights to 
life, property, and comfort no one who chose to join the 
majority would be bound to respect. 



42 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

101. It is the object of constitutions to protect minorities 
in certain common rights, and to restrain the power of major- 
ities, who may do, or enact, or cause to be done, only what 
in any case the Constitution permits ; and have no right, no 
matter how numerically strong they may be, to invade the 
minority in those rights which the Constitution secures to 
all the citizens. 

102. Out of this thought grow all the provisions of a polit- 
ical Constitution — as, for instance, under our own, no majority 
can deprive a criminal of trial by jury, or elect its candidates 
for longer than a prescribed term, or deprive the minority of 
life or property by unequal laws, or enact laws contrary to 
the provisions or outside of the limitations of the Consti- 
tution. 

103. It is a merit in any constitution to be brief, and to 
state only general rules or principles, to be applied practically 
by the law-making power ; because thus this instrument, 
which ought to be but rarely and cautiously altered, is more 
elastic, and more easily applied to changing circumstances, 
and to a great variety of life. It is th.3 proper function of 
a constitution, for instance, to declare the term during which 
a President, a Member of Congress, or a Governor shall hold 
office, for that may and ought to be a permanent regulation ; 
but it would be an error to fix in the constitution the amount 
of salary either ought to receive ; or even to prohibit the re- 
election of an officer, for circumstances may occur making it 
expedient to re-elect. For instance, had the so-called " one- 
term principle," which is not a principle at all, but a mere 
foolish expedient, been incorporated in our Constitution, we 
should not have re-elected Mr. Lincoln in 1864, an event 
which did more than any battle to bring the war to an end, 
by convincing the Southern people that the Federal policy 
would not suffer change. It has become a tradition having 
the force of a Constitutional provision that the President 
shall not be chosen for a third term. The example set by 
General Washington, in this respect, is likely to be followed ; 
for if any President desired a third term, this would be plain 



OF THE LEGISLATIVE OR LAW-MAKING BRANCH. 43 

proof of inordinate and dangerous ambition in him, render- 
ing him unfit for the office ; and if in such a case a President 
used the power of his patronage to procure a nomination, it 
would be wise to vote against him at every hazard. But it 
is a proper constitutional regulation that salaries shall not be 
increased or diminished during the term of the incumbent ; 
for a salary is in the nature of a contract, and ought to be 
beyond the reach of increase from corruption, or diminution 
from party malevolence. It is proper that the Constitution 
should prohibit human slavery ; but it is better to declare by 
laws not only the penalties for smuggling, theft, etc., but also 
what constitutes these and other crimes — except treason, which, 
being a purely political offense, its definition ought to be im- 
mutably fixed, as it is in our Federal Constitution, and not 
left to the political passions of any period. But even here 
Congress, in the Constitution, is wisely charged to declare the 
penalty of treason. Again, it is proper that the Constitution 
should create a Supreme Court, as ours does ; but it would 
be unwise that it should also fix the number or location of 
minor courts, because as the country grows these may have 
, to be increased ; and accordingly our Constitution leaves Con- 
gress to establish these minor courts. 



XIV. 

OF THE LEGISLATIVE OB LAW-MAKING BBANGH. 

104. Legislative bodies have usually two Houses, as in our 
Congress and state Legislatures. In the Federal Congress, the 
Senators are chosen by the Legislatures of the different states, 
and are supposed to represent the states, while the representa- 
tives are chosen directly by the people in districts. 

105. Action in a law-making body means change ; and laws 
ought to be changed seldom, and never without full discussion 
and consideration. 

106. All the arrangements of modern legislative bodies in 



44 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

free nations are wisely made to secure these ends. Thus we 
have two Houses, each of which must separately discuss and 
agree to a bill before it can become a law ; one of those Houses 
chosen by a different set of electors or for a longer term than 
the other ; the executive veto — which, bear in mind, is solely 
to ask the two Houses to reconsider their bill, and not at all 
to obstruct or abrogate the law — for when it once becomes a 
law in spite of his veto, the executive is bound to enforce it. 
To the same end are all the Parliamentary rules and forms 
which cause delay in the passage of new laws. 

107. All these are wholesome and necessary checks on the 
law-making power. It is therefore a great blunder to accuse 
Congress or a state Legislature, as inconsiderate people some- 
times do, of " wasting time in debate." A representative body 
is never so usefully employed as when engaged in discussing 
the measures before it ; and it is never so dangerous to the 
people as when the majority are strong enough to prevent de- 
bate, and pass laws by the mere overwhelming force of votes ; 
because laws so passed, without discussion — which means ex- 
amination — are likely to be unwise. 

108. Another reproach which is sometimes cast at our legis- 
lative bodies is that the ablest men are not chosen to seats. 
But our Congress and Legislatures do not pretend to be col- 
lections of the ablest men in the nation. They are representa- 
tive bodies ; and the delegates are supposed to represent the 
constituencies. Of course you are to understand that a repre- 
sentative is not a mere delegate to utter the voice of his con- 
stituents. He is sent to exercise his independent judgment on 
pending questions, and not to record what their whims or tem- 
porary passions may dictate. He is their wise man, and not 
their slave. If the people of any district East or West send 
an unfit or dishonest person, that is their risk : they leave them- 
selves without influence in the House. Our Congress does 
not contain the most brilliant men in the nation, nor all the 
ablest men ; but it has a great body of solid ability always ; 
and it is the better for containing little genius. 

109. Any one who is familiar with Washington or our state 



OF TOWN MEETINGS. 45 

capitals knows that constituencies gain immensely in political 
power by sending able men as delegates, and lose when they 
send demagogues ; and also that the influence of a political 
district may be very much increased by keeping the same man 
> long time in its service. But if the people in any district 
or state choose, negligently or perversely, to send only inex- 
perienced or incapable men, that is their business and their 
loss. Remember always that ours is a representative govern- 
ment, and not a government of the ablest men ; and that if 
there is any where a constituency composed mainly of foolish 
or ignorant or misguided people, they have a right to be heard, 
and their folly is likely to be the sooner exploded if it is 
officially displayed in Congress, and there subjected to the fire 
of open criticism. 



XV. 

OF TOWN MEETINGS. 

110. A town, or township, is the smallest political subdivision 
we recognize. The school district is only to regulate the free 
school. The wards in cities are the equivalents of the town- 
ships in the country. 

111. When the people of a town (or township, as they say 
in most of the states) meet together annually to discuss the 
affairs of their township, to elect its officers, appropriate the 
money required to carry on its affairs, criticise what has been 
done or left undone in the past year, and to declare, after dis- 
cussion, what shall be done or left undone in its local concerns 
during the year to come — that is a Town Meeting. 

112. In such a place each citizen has opportunity to bring 
up such suggestions as he pleases, recommending them with 
his best ability ; there alone the people act directly, and not 
by delegates ; and by this democratic parliament the local af- 
fairs of the township — its roads, schools, police, health — can 
and will be the most efficiently and economically managed* 



46 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

113. The town meetings have been called the nurseries of 
free government, because in them the people learn the art of 
self-government ; public spirit is developed, because each citi- 
zen may exercise a direct influence upon affairs with which he 
is familiar ; men become skilled in debate, and, what is more 
important, learn to submit quietly to the majority when that 
happens to decide against their wishes. In those states where 
town meetings are held, they have always had an important 
influence upon the political character of the population. Un- 
fortunately in most of our states the town meeting is unknown 
or has fallen into disuse, and the powers which it ought to ex- 
ercise are scattered among county and district officers, to the 
destruction of one of our most important political organiza- 
tions. 



XVI 

OF EDUCATION. 

114. A certain degree of intelligence is necessary to make a 
man a good citizen of a free state. Experience has proved 
that an elementary education is very helpful to any one in ac- 
quiring this degree of intelligence ; though, pray remark, it is 
not absolutely essential nor absolutely effective in all cases — 
for both you and I know a man w T ho can neither read nor 
WTite, but whose good sense and sound judgment make him a 
very admirable citizen ; and I have known a number of per- 
sons w T hom even an academic or college education has not made 
his equals. Bear in mind therefore that what we call educa- 
tion is not the equivalent of intelligence, but only a very help- 
ful means to it. 

115. An elementary education, also, is absolutely necessary 
in these days to enable a man to serve successfully in any but 
the very lowest occupations, and its general diffusion is there- 
fore a means to increase the prosperity of a community, and 
to prevent pauperism as well as crime. 

116. Hence the necessity of schools, and the justification of 



OF EDUCATION. 47 

free or public schools. Such a school, maintained and in- 
spected by the state, is not a charitable but a political institu- 
tion, in the broadest sense. It is to the interest of all the citi- 
zens that every child in the state shall have so much education 
as shall enable it to comprehend our political institutions, and 
to follow intelligently some useful industry. That much the 
state, in the common interest, ought to provide free of charge 
for all. A child which at fourteen or fifteen has been thorough- 
ly drilled in reading, writing, arithmetic, drawing, and the sim- 
pler parts of physical geography, and if possible musical nota- 
tion, is fitted either to begin to learn a trade, or, if its parents 
desire, to enter a higher school or academy for further studies. 
It is not required for the safety or welfare of the state that 
all the children shall be trained or prepared for professional 
or business life. 

117. A compulsory school law ought to include the children 
of the wealthy as well as those of the poor ; and it ought to 
compel attendance during four years — say from ten to four- 
teen. The free schools serve an important political use by 
bringing all the children of the community together in a way 
which makes citizens of all classes know each other, and thus 
prevents that alienation of the less from the more prosperous, 
which is a grave danger to free government. 

118. It has been found very difficult, in most of our states 
which have attempted it, to enforce compulsory school attend- 
ance under a general law; and this is one of the cases, of 
which I shall speak to you farther on, where it is wiser to al- 
low the people of a county or town or school district to de- 
cide ; letting each minor locality determine for itself whether 
or not it will compel attendance at school. The question is 
new to most of our people ; and a compulsory law is not like- 
ly to be enforced until its importance is more generally felt. 
Again, in the Southern States, prejudice of race would make a 
law or regulation compelling the attendance of white and black 
children in the same schools hateful to the whites and painful 
to the colored children ; and such a law would therefore be 
highly unwise,* and is not likely to be adopted very soon by 



£8 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

any of those states. Yet the white people of the Southern 
States would act most unwisely did they neglect or refuse to 
provide free schools for the colored children. For to allow 
any child, colored or white, to go without a common-school 
education is a costly blunder; because such neglect will in- 
crease crime and pauperism — both of which cost the tax-payers 
dear. 



XVII. 

OF TAXES. 

119. The tax is what the citizen pays out of his earnings or 
wealth, or both, to defray the necessary cost of protecting his 
life and property — to enable him to produce, accumulate, and 
exchange with security and convenience, without devoting a 
part of his time and strength to the labor of defending him- 
self and guarding his accumulations against robbers. 

120. This general defense of the lives and property of all 
we delegate to governments ; and it results that when a gov- 
ernment levies taxes, and yet fails to make the life and prop- 
erty of every individual secure, it fails of its duty, and robs the 
tax-payer. 

121. Free government is the best, because under it the peo- 
ple are able constantly to hold their government responsible, 
and force its officers to fulfill their duties, and to conduct af- 
fairs economically ; or, if they fail, to remove them and put 
more capable men in their places. 

122. We delegate to the government — federal, state, city, or 
county — also some other duties besides that of protecting us 
in life and property, as I have before told you : such as carry- 
ing the mails, building and repairing roads, the survey of lands, 
the improvement of harbors, etc. To defray the cost of these 
undertakings we must pay also a general contribution, which is 
improperly called a tax. It is in fact an assessment, upon each 
person, for an improvement in the benefits of which he shares ; 
and for this assessment he therefore gets some return in con- 



OF TAXES. 49 

veniences. Many things which we thus delegate to govern- 
ments or public authorities might be better or more cheaply 
done by associated private effort. For instance, toll-roads 
made and kept in order by private corporations are almost al- 
ways in better order than county or other public roads ; and 
as only those pay toll who use them, the tax or assessment 
thus laid is more just and equal than one laid on property in 
general, where the poor are very apt to pay more than their 
share. 

123. But all taxes imposed to defray the cost of preserving 
the peace, protecting life and property, dispensing justice, and 
punishing criminals, are loss. They are so much taken from 
the wealth or accumulated savings of a nation and flung into 
the fire. If all men were honest, peaceable, and just, there 
would be no need of governments, there would be no taxes, 
and there would be, therefore, the more wealth, and, of course, 
the more comfort and enjoyment in the world for all. Every 
thief, burglar, robber, murderer, every avaricious, grasping, un- 
just man, in the community, makes it the poorer, and takes 
something from the comfort of every honest man. 

124. Hence the importance that every man shall be a good 
citizen, just to his fellows, and honest in all his dealings; 
hence, too, the importance of general education, which tends 
toward virtuous conduct, because it better enables men to get 
an honest living ; of just, equal, and stable laws, because these 
tend to make men just and honest, by removing from them 
temptations to greed and dishonest gains. For these taxes 
are the costly penalties of vice, ignorance, and selfishness. 

125. Taxes are either direct or indirect, and it may be said 
that direct taxes are those exacted directly from the consumer, 
and indirect those paid by the producer, middle-man, or ex- 
changer, who adds them to the price he exacts from the con- 
sumers, who thus pay indirectly. 

126. Bear in mind that all taxes are paid by the consumer 
or user, in the end. 

127. Direct taxes are those laid on real estate and on per- 
sonal property in actual use, on incomes, and on polls or heads. 

4 C 



50 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

Our state and other local revenues are all raised by direct tax- 
ation. 

128. Indirect taxes are duties on goods imported, or on 
goods manufactured for sale at home; in the last case they 
are called excises. But you easily see that the merchant who 
imports goods, or the manufacturer at home, does not submit 
to the loss of the amount of tax he pays. He makes it in 
either case a charge upon his goods, and adds it to their price. 
Not only that, but as he must take the risk of loss by fire or 
other Occident, or by falling prices or a lack of market after 
the duty or excise is paid, he adds a percentage to the price to 
cover these risks ; for he knows that the government will not 
return him the taxes he has paid, no matter if he should en- 
tirely lose his goods the day after he had paid the tax or duty 
upon them. 

129. Hence indirect taxes are less economical than direct 
taxes; they inflict more loss upon the consumer compared 
with the amount of revenue raised. But because indirect taxes 
are paid by the consumer with other payments, in small and 
often insignificant amounts at a time, and without the inter- 
vention of that universally hated personage the tax-gatherer, 
this mode of raising revenue has always been a favorite with 
the people ; and because an indirect tax is thus collected with 
less friction, and can be increased secretly, as it were, and with- 
out its effect being so immediately and plainly felt by each 
individual tax-payer, it has always been a favorite with gov- 
ernments, 

130. The revenues of the Federal Government ara \lmost 
entirely derived from indirect taxes. 

131. As these are difficult of adjustment and complicated, 
their arrangement almost always gives opportunity to selfish 
and scheming persons to impose upon Congress, and get it to 
favor their pursuits either by exemption where a tax should 
be laid, or by laying a tax where the general interest requires 
none ; or finally, by inducing Congress to change the duty or 
tax, either raising or lowering it, by which change manufact- 
urers or importers or speculators may make extraordinary 



OF PUBLIC DEBTS AND SINKING FUNDS. 51 

gains. Thus a tax system, whose only proper end is to raise 
a certain amount of revenue for the government, is often mis- 
applied to providing a bounty for certain favored pursuits, or 
enabling influential speculators to make unjust gains at the 
cost of the mass of the people. 

132. In spite of these abuses, however, it is probable that 
indirect taxation will remain a favorite means of raising rev- 
enue in all countries for a long time to come ; and the citizens 
have no remedy against its abuse, except to insist upon the 
sound and indisputable principle that the sole proper purpose 
of taxation is to raise the revenue required by the government ; 
and to hold legislators to a strict account in this matter. 



XVIII 

OF PUBLIC DEBTS AND SINKING FUNDS. 

133. It happens, too frequently, that the taxes paid by a 
community do not suffice to pay the expenses which are in- 
curred by it; and in that case the community, as a corpora- 
tion, borrows money. Thus arise national debts, state debts, 
county debts, city debts. 

134. Our national debt was incurred during the late great 
war, and therefore for a necessary end. The cost of carrying 
on the war to maintain the Union was so great that it could 
not, without ruining industry and oppressing the people, be 
paid out of the taxes. Hence the Federal Government bor- 
rowed vast sums of money. This was done by a process called 
" selling bonds." 

135. A government "bond" is simply a certificate that the 
government which issues it owes the holder of the bond a sum 
mentioned on its face, with interest at a rate specified, payable 
at fixed periods ; the principal or sum of the bond being also 
payable at a fixed time. Instead of sending agents around to 
borrow money, it is more convenient for a government or a 
railroad or other corporation to prepare such bonds, and there- 



52 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

upon offer them for sale. You may see frequently in the ad- 
vertising columns of newspapers, state, city, county, and railroad 
bonds thus offered, the advertisement calling for bids for such 
bonds, which are, in effect, put up at public auction. 

136. The rate of interest named in such bonds is usually 
low ; but if there are a great many bonds offered, or it is known 
that the supply must be great, or the security — which is the 
stability or good faith of the government or other corporation 
— is doubtful, it can hope to receive only some sum for its bonds 
less than the sum which these promise to pay. People deal 
with governments in such matters precisely as they do with 
individuals. Thus, the Federal Government having to borrow 
constantly enormous sums during the war, its bonds fell con- 
siderably below par; to that rate, in fact, at which shrewd busi- 
ness men here and abroad were tempted to take the risk of 
their ultimate payment. As soon as the war closed, and in- 
deed before, when our success was seen to be assured, the 
bonds rose in value — because they became a more desirable, 
that is to say, a more secure investment to people who had 
money to put out at interest. Wealthy men in Europe, where 
the rate of interest is lower than with us, bought constantly 
increasing quantities of them. And as the interest has been 
regularly paid, and the world generally believes us honest, we 
have been of late able to call in many six per cent, bonds, and 
borrow money at five per cent, to pay them off. 

137. The security for a national or state debt is the honesty 
of its people. The sheriff, who is the official collector of debts, 
can not levy upon a nation, nor upon a state. All private cor- 
porations, such as railroads, can be sold out ; their bonds are 
true mortgage bonds, whose owners can foreclose and sell out 
the property pledged as security for their payment. 

138. If you owe so much money that to pay the interest on 
it requires the greater part of your income, you will readily 
comprehend that this might be a serious embarrassment to you. 
It would make you poor, even if you had a large income. A 
private person in such a dilemma, if he hag property, usually 
sells some of this, to pay off his debt or a part of it ; if he has 



OF PUBLIC DEBTS AND SINKING FUNDS. 53 

little or no property and is hopelessly in debt, he becomes a 
bankrupt, and on surrendering all that he has to his creditors, 
his debt is canceled under the operation of the bankrupt law. 
But a nation or a municipal corporation has no property to 
sell or to surrender to its creditors ; it can not take the benefit 
of the bankrupt act. It must pay. 

139. But the interest it pays is drawn from the people by 
taxation. A heavy debt therefore necessarily increases the 
taxes ; and these may become so burdensome as to cripple the 
industry and energy of a people. You see therefore the folly 
of the assertion which used to be made by some people dur- 
ing the war that " a national debt is a national blessing." A 
debt is never a blessing, any more than a lame foot or a cur- 
vature of the spine. You see also the fallacy of the assertion 
which is sometimes heard that what we borrow abroad does 
not cripple us. On the contrary we have to send money or 
products abroad, to pay both principal and interest of our for- 
eign indebtedness, and this is of course a tax upon our re- 
sources. 

140. A sinking fund is a contrivance invented by a great 
English minister, William Pitt, as an additional security for 
the repayment of a national debt. 

141. It is not uncommon, when a nation makes a loan, to 
set apart a special portion of its revenue or income for the re- 
payment of this loan. Thus the Federal Government has 
pledged so much of its revenue from customs as is necessary 
to pay the interest on its debt. 

142. By the establishment of a sinking fund, another part 
of the revenue is set aside annually to pay also the principal, 
when that shall become due. The sum so set apart is put at 
interest, and this interest is again invested, and thus com- 
pounded. Money at compound interest at six per cent, 
doubles itself in about twelve years ; and thus you see that in 
time a sinking fund may be made, out of a small beginning, 
to pay oh! a large debt. 

143. Modern financiers, however, discourage sinking funds 
by governments ; because it has been found that the sums 



54 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

thus accumulated are sometimes used for current expenses, in 
a national emergency ; and thus the nation has been taxed be- 
forehand to supply, perhaps, a wasteful ruler with means for 
profuse expenditure. 

144. The book-keeping of nations and states is often com- 
plicated by different accounts and sinking funds. It ought to 
be plain and clear, so that every citizen could at a glance see 
the real state of the finances. 



XIX. 

OF PROPERTY. 

145. "Whatever you earn or produce or create by your labor 
or ingenuity or forethought, or all combined, is your property ; 
it belongs to you, because you have taken the trouble to pro- 
duce it ; and you have the right to do with it what you will. 
You may, for instance, consume or waste it all. 

146. If you produce more than you consume, what remains 
over is still your own, your property, to which you have the 
exclusive right against other persons. This surplus which re- 
mains over in your hands is called capital. Thus if you have 
saved enough from your product to buy yourself a spade, or a 
chest of tools, or a plow and span of horses, these articles are 
properly capital, and their possession constitutes you to that 
degree a capitalist. Ignorant persons misuse this word, and im- 
agine a capitalist to be one who has accumulated some vague 
but large amount of property. I want you to understand 
that this is a foolish limitation of the meaning of this word. 

147. Capital might be called the net profit of labor, if it 
were not that, in order to its existence, another element than 
labor is required, namely, self-denial or economy. For it is 
possible for a man to destroy, by consumption or waste, or 
both, all that he earns or produces ; and a considerable part of 
mankind do actually live in this way — from hand to mouth, 
as we say. 



OF PROPERTY. 55 

148. Industry and economy united are therefore required, 
as you see, to accumulate that surplus which we call capital; 
and as both these are voluntary and irksome exercises : as you 
deny yourself both when you engage in productive labor and 
when you refrain from consuming or wasting what you have 
produced, it follows that no other person can have so good a 
claim on your surplus as yourself 

149. In a rude or savage society, a man who wished to ac- 
cumulate property had not only to labor to create it, and to 
exercise self-denial to save it, but he had to devote a consider- 
able part of his time and strength to defending his possessions 
as well as his life against others. To save this last necessity, 
society and governments exist, their use being to make life 
and property secure against attack ; and by a general co-oper- 
ation and contribution of efforts or of means to overawe and 
punish depredators. Armies, navies, the police, the courts, 
and the body of laws in obedience to which all these act in a 
free state, are simply means for the protection of life and 
property at a cheaper rate and in a more effective manner 
than could be done by individual efforts ; and every nation is 
therefore, in this respect, only a great co-operative association, 
in which each member contributes somewhat from his accu- 
mulations or earnings to pay the charges for preserving the 
rest. It is only by thus delegating the power of protection 
to a few members of society that the remainder can get time 
to produce sufficient for consumption and a surplus — which 
surplus we call wealth or capital. And it is only where this 
protection is effective that men are encouraged to the labor and 
self-denial necessary to create property or wealth. 

150. I want you to fix firmly in your mind that every dol- 
lar's worth of property or wealth in the world is a dollar's 
worth of proof that somebody at some time did not only la- 
bor to produce it, but denied himself some pleasure or com- 
fort in order to save it. For though God gave us the soil, 
the seasons, rain, and many other means of production — just 
as he gave us our hands, strength, and brain — these are in 
themselves not wealth, The gold lay in California for cent* 



56 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

uries, and was useless and worthless until man's labor dug it 
out; and in like manner every natural product is worthless 
until the labor of man is applied to it. For instance, the 
plains of California might be covered with wheat ; but, unless 
it was harvested, it would be worthless. You may say that 
cattle would eat it ; but unless the cattle were afterwards 
caught and slain, and their hides and meat preserved by the 
labor of men, they would be worthless ; and if, being caught, 
they were wastefully shot and left to rot, no surplus or capital 
would be saved. 

151. Remember, too, that what we call the wealth of a na- 
tion is only the aggregate wealth of its members, and repre- 
sents the results of their industry and self-denial. To in- 
crease this wealth, therefore, a people must both labor and 
save ; and to be encouraged in these irksome duties, they 
must feel themselves secure in the enjoyment of what they 
produce and accumulate. Every thing, therefore, which makes 
property less secure, which exposes it not merely to open 
attack by predatory men, but to loss by bad laws, or by inef- 
ficient or corrupt rulers, weakens the spirit of accumulation. 

152. But to maintain civilization, great accumulated wealth 
and an active desire by the people to accumulate more are ab- 
solutely necessary. If you will try to imagine a nation whose 
members have accumulated no property, you will see that to 
them civilization is impossible, even if they desired it. For 
such a people would have neither houses, cattle, nor tools — 
all of which are accumulated wealth or capital, to possess 
which men must previously have labored and denied them- 
selves. But you must see that such a civilization as ours re- 
quires much more than houses, cattle, and tools. We have 
schools, shops, factories, roads, railroads, steamboats, tele- 
graphs, and a great multitude of other things, to possess any 
one of which we must have accumulated, previous to their 
construction, property or wealth enough by our labor and self- 
denial to pay their cost. A nation whose members had accu- 
mulated no property, and who consequently lived from hand 
to mouth, could not afford to build a railroad or a factory or 



OF MONEY. 57 

a school-house ; each person would be busy providing food 
for himself ; and no laboring force could be diverted to these 
other objects, because no means or capital would be at hand 
to support such a force while it was laying a stone wall or 
rolling a rail, which at the close of the day they could neither 
eat nor clothe themselves with. 

153. Nor, if accumulation should at any time cease, could 
civilization continue ; because in such a case the wealth al- 
ready accumulated would quickly be spent, and the nation 
would be left without the means to maintain its instruments 
of civilization. If, for instance, the Californians had unani- 
mously determined to dig out all the gold in their mountains, 
and confine themselves rigidly to that industry alone, or if 
California had been a sterile desert, yielding only gold, when 
the mines gave out they would have had to abandon the 
country, and leave it once more to become a desert. As pro- 
duction and accumulation ceased, civilization would have fled 
the state. But as the land is fertile and the settlers turned 
also to agriculture, they used natural resources which, unlike 
gold mines, never fail ; and the accumulation of wealth went 
on when gold ceased to be abundant. 



XX. 

OF MONET. 

154. But to encourage production and facilitate accumu- 
lation, something besides security of property is required. 
Each man can not produce all the articles he needs for 
comfort and enjoyment, because many things which he de- 
sires can not be produced in the climate or on the soil where 
he lives. Moreover, he can work to much greater advantage, 
produce more easily, and accumulate more rapidly, if he con- 
fines himself to one or a few articles of production. If you 
are a carpenter and I a shoemaker, it would plainly be an ad- 
vantage to both of us, I wanting a house, and you shoes for 

C2 






i>b POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

your family, if we agreed that you would build me the house, 
and I should make you a certain number of shoes. This kind 
of exchange is called barter. 

155. Imagine now a tribe or nation to whom barter is un- 
known, but who have learned to accumulate property. Each 
family aims to provide all it needs by its own labor ; and 
whatever its surplus may be it stores away. You will see 
the monstrous inconvenience of such a condition, because the 
surplus may be perishable. But, what is far more serious, 
such a surplus could have no value ; for unless it could be 
sold, which means exchanged for some other articles giving 
comfort or enjoyment, it would simply accumulate, and in 
time rot. That is to say, uiiless you can exchange your sur- 
plus for something else, it is absolutely worthless. 

156. Fix clearly in your mind, therefore, that to establish 
industry and self-denial, which means to make civilization 
possible, it is necessary, first, that property shall be secure ; 
and, second, that the possessors of property shall be able 
freely to exchange it for other articles which they desire ; 
and that if you take away the possibility of exchange, produc- 
tion will cease. 

157. If you had hides and I coffee, you might, if you 
could find me, give me hides for my coffee ; and thus both 
of us would be benefited and pleased. We should, how T ever, 
first be at the trouble of finding each other, and would prob- 
ably waste much time in this pursuit, which would be so 
much taken from the production of other hides and coffee. 
If now a third person should appear, ready to carry your 
hides to me, and bring back to you my coffee, plainly that 
would be an advantage to both of us, who could go on in 
the pursuits in which we had most skill, and in which there- 
fore we could produce the most. 

158. This third person is called a merchant, and his busi- 
ness is commerce. For his trouble we should both be ready 
to pay him a share of our products, because by using his 
labor and skill we are enabled to produce a greater quantity. 

159. But how am I to be sure that the merchant to whom 



OF MONEY. 59 

I intrust my coffee is honest, and that he will really bring me 
back hides ? He may be a rogue. To smooth the way and 
make us both secure, we have an ingenious contrivance called 
money, the precise nature of which it is very important that 
you should understand. 

160. If the merchant who offers to exchange for us our 
hides and coffee can leave with ns, as a pledge of his honesty, 
something which either of us w T ill accept of the other as really 
valuable, and equally valuable with our products, we shall of 
course be satisfied. For if the merchant should disappear 
with your hides, you would still have that with which you 
could buy my coffee. 

161. Take another example : If you are a shoemaker, it is 
necessary for you to receive for your shoes either the actual 
articles you need to consume, or something which will buy 
these. You may be willing to accept for shoes an order on 
the farmer for oats and butter, another on the miller for 
flour, another on the tailor for clothing, another on the hatter 
for hats. But your great object has been to have at the end 
of all these transactions a number of shoes for which you 
need no article which is at once to be consumed by you or 
your family. These surplus shoes, the result of labor and 
self-denial, are your capital. What will you take for them ? 
Not an order for more butter, oats, flour, clothes, hats — for 
your shoes will keep as well or better than any of these ar- 
ticles. Yet they are cumbrous ; rats may eat them ; a damp 
storage-place may spoil them ; fire may destroy them ; in 
course of time they would rot ; and a new fashion in shoes 
may meantime make them unsalable. If you could get for 
your surplus shoes something which had real and universal 
value, and which yet should not be cumbrous or easily de- 
stroyed, or subject to loss by change of fashion, you w r ould 
evidently be benefited. 

162. This something is gold and silver, two metals whose 
peculiarity is that their rarity, the cost of obtaining them 
from the mines, and their wide use for ornamental purposes, 
^ive them a fixed value all over the civilized w T orld, and 



60 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

which are not cumbrous nor easily destroyed. A hundred dol- 
lars' worth of shoes require a storehouse, with guards against 
dampness, fire, and rats. A hundred dollars' worth of gold 
or silver you can lay away on a shelf, or, if necessary, carry in 
a bag. 

103. Still, if you were going to exchange your shoes for 
gold or silver, you would have to assay it, to ascertain its 
purity, and to weigh it, that you should be sure of getting 
the proper quantity and purity. To save you and all of us 
these time-wasting labors, governments undertake the trouble 
of coining. This means that the government, at a mint, as- 
says the gold and silver, purifies them, and by a mark on 
each coin denotes its fineness and weight. That is to say, 
it certifies that a silver dollar, or a gold five-dollar piece, really 
contains a dollar's worth of silver or five dollars' 1 worth of gold. 

164. It follows that a gold or silver dollar is an object hav- 
ing a real value. If you choose to melt it, you can sell the 
gold or silver in it for a dollar. If you give it in exchange 
for a dinner, you do not swindle the tavern-keeper. 

165. The government, having for the general convenience 
and economy coined the money or certified its value, may 
rightly, for the same end, punish false coiners or counter- 
feiters ; and it may declare that its coinage shall be accepted 
by all the citizens in their transactions at the weight and 
purity which it has certified — which is called making it a 
" legal tender." This is in order that no man shall put his 
neighbor to trouble, in making payments, by disputing these 
qualities of the coin. 

166. But it is evident that this does not give the govern- 
ment a right to debase the coinage, by certifying that to be a 
dollar which contains less than a dollar's worth of gold or 
silver, for this would be to cheat the people ; still less can it 
affix arbitrary denominations to things, as pieces of birch- 
bark, or of paper, and command them to be accepted as 
money, or make them a legal tender as we say, for this would 
be to authorize one citizen to swindle another. All that the 
government does in coining is for the general convenience to de- 



OF LABOR AND CAPITAL. 61 

clave the purity and certify the actual weight of a piece of 
metal. 

167. Since the great gold discoveries in California and 
Australia, gold has been more exclusively used for money 
than formerly ; and in several countries, our own among tha 
number, silver coins have been struck worth a trifle less than 
their face or denomination, the object being to prevent waste 
from melting and recoining. Such coins are called " tokens," 
and are used only for convenience as " small change." 



XXL 

OF LABOR AND CAPITAL. 



168. The spirit of accumulation — of industry and self-denial 
i — being once aroused in a people, and encouraged by their 
security in the enjoyment of property, and facility in exchang- 
ing their surplus products, which gives them value, it is clear, 
considering the difference in men — some being weak of body, 
less persistent, less ingenious, or less self-denying than others 
— that inevitably some will accumulate less property than 
others ; and that many will, in fact, accumulate nothing, but 
consume all they produce, and as fast as they produce it. 

169. But in many emergencies of a man's life it is ab- 
solutely necessary that he shall have some surplus to start 
with. Take as an instance the gold-hunters in the early days 
of California. A multitude of men rushed to the rich placer 
diggings, hopeful of speedy fortune ; but a large part of 
them presently discovered that they must eat and drink, and 
be clothed and sheltered, while they looked for and dug out 
gold ; and not having a surplus sufficient to provide them- 
selves with food, clothing, and shelter in this emergency, what 
should they do ? Die ? No ; a man who found himself in 
that situation sought out another who had a surplus, and said 
to him, Give me food, clothing, and shelter, or the means of 
getting these, and I will give you my strength and skill, until 



62 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

I have saved by self-denial a surplus sufficient to enable me 
to prospect and dig on my own account. That is to say, he 
became a laborer for hire, or wages. 

170. Suppose now he could have found no one thus ready 
to hire him and pay him wages? Suppose every man who 
had a surplus (this surplus being capital) had laid it away in 
a strong box, and refused to use it in paying wages for the 
labor of the man without surplus ? Do you not see that the 
chief sufferer in this case — the only immediate sufferer indeed 
— would be the man without surplus or capital, and in need 
of food and other necessaries of life, which he could get only 
by wages — or theft ? 

1*11. But here you have the whole question of capital and 
labor ; and if any body tells you that there is a necessary and 
natural antagonism between capital and labor, you may safely 
set him down as an ignorant man. 

172. Capital is simply accumulated savings. He who has 
it becomes the enemy of labor only when he hides his capital 
in an old stocking or a fire-place, or in the ground : when he 
refuses to make use of it. When he does this we call him a 
miser, and despise and dislike him, as is but just, for then only 
he sets up his selfish interest against his fellow-men. 

173. But while property, surplus, or capital is used by its 
possessors, it is a benefit to the whole mass of those who have 
no capital^ and to whose advantage it is, as in the case of the 
needy miner, to be able to receive wages for their labor. The 
more numerous the laboring or non-capitalist class is, the more 
important to them, you must see, is a large accumulation of 
capital, for they depend on that to enable them to earn wages, 
and in their turn, if they will exercise self-denial, to save a 
surplus ; and no one is so seriously injured as the laborer for 
wages, by any event — be it a war, an unjust law, or a corrupt 
government — which lessens the safety of accumulations, alarms 
their owners, and makes them reluctant to venture on new en- 
terprises. 

174. It is therefore fortunate for the less prosperous of 
mankind that the spirit of accumulation leads those who own 



OF LABOR AND CAPITAL. 63 

property to seek ways in which to use this very property or 
capital in adding to their stores; for thus the efforts of the 
poor, the non-capitalists, are lightened, and made more pro- 
ductive for themselves than they otherwise could be. 

175. Capital is simply accumulated savings. In the Unit- 
ed States any laborer may hope to acquire property, if he 
has health and intelligence, by the exercise of industry and 
economy ; and it is one of the commonest, as well as, to a 
thoughtful man, one of the most satisfactory experiences, to see 
a young man, after laboring faithfully for hire for a time, pres- 
ently begin on his own account, and by and by become, in his 
turn, the employer of other men's labor as well as his own. 

176. While it will probably, for a long time to come, be 
necessary as well as advantageous to the mass of men to labor 
for wages, that country is the most fortunate in which it is the 
easiest for an industrious and self-denying citizen to lift him- 
self from the condition of a hired man to that of independence, 
however modest. It is extremely important that neither laws 
nor customs shall interfere with this change, but that all doors 
shall be opened for it. For though not one in a thousand of 
the laborers for wages may choose thus to elevate himself to 
independence, it adds materially to the contentment and hap- 
piness of all to believe that if they chose to do so they might ; 
and that efforts not beyond their powers would always open 
the way to them. 

177. As the accumulated wealth or savings in any country 
is thus a source of subsistence and a means of advancement, 
not merely to the individual owners of this wealth, capital, or 
property, but to the whole population, and especially to that 
part of it which labors for wages, and who could not receive 
wages if accumulated capital did not exist, or if it were de- 
stroyed, so it may be said without exaggeration that no part 
of the community has so vital, an interest in the abundance, free- 
dom, and security of capital as those who labor for wages. For 
though the individual capitalist may be seriously inconven- 
ienced by events which lessen or make insecure his accumula- 
tions, he has still the resources of removing his capital, espe- 






64 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

cially if it consists of money, to a more secure place, of with- 
drawing it, at whatever loss, from enterprises which afford 
employment by giving the means out of which to pay wages, 
or, in the final resort, of living upon it without seeking any re- 
turn for its use. In any of these cases the laborers for hire suf- 
fer first and most severely. This you may see in every great 
panic and business crisis in our country, when those who pos- 
sess a surplus or capital at once begin to hoard it, and to with- 
draw it from enterprises ; and it is seen upon a large scale in 
such a country as Mexico, where long-continued civil disorders 
have caused both the hoarding and removal of capital, and 
where, consequently, though the wealthy live well enough, and 
even increase their capital, the mass of the people remain in 
indigence, and find it extremely difficult to achieve more than 
a hand-to-mouth existence, and this though their country has 
great natural wealth and a fine climate. 

178. Consequently those who assert that capital is the en- 
emy of labor, or who favor unjust laws, arbitrary interference 
with the course of industry or the uses of capital, or a corrupt 
and wasteful administration of the government — all which are 
attacks upon capital and its owners — are the worst enemies of 
the laborers for wages, and injure these precisely in the de- 
gree in which the unjust law or wasteful administration dis- 
courages or hinders the accumulation of capital. 

179. Hence trades-unions and international societies, when 
they teach that capital is the foe of labor, and that the labor- 
er for wages ought or must always remain a hireling ; when, 
in carrying these doctrines into practice, they endeavor to limit 
the number of hours a laborer shall work, and the number of 
persons who shall learn a trade ;. or when they support usury 
laws, an irredeemable paper currency, and extravagant appro- 
priations by the government for public works — really strike a 
blow at the comfort and prosperity of the class which labors 
for wages. 

180. In several following subdivisions I shall try to make 
plain to you how interference with the free use, circulation, 
and increase of capital is, aside from its injustice, specially in- 



OF USURY LAWS. 65 

jurious to the non-capitalist class — to those who labor for 
wages — and to whose advantage it is to be able to accumulate 
a surplus, and to become, by their honest labor, capitalists 
themselves. For I remind you again that a " capitalist " is not 
necessarily a man of great wealth. The carpenter who owns 
his chest of tools is to that extent a capitalist : he has a sur- 
plus, whkm he can sell or rent out. The Liverpool match- 
boy, who called himself a " timber-merchant on a small scale," 
was not so far wrong : he had goods to sell ; and if he owned 
the matches, he was also a capitalist — to that extent. 



XXII. 

OF USURY LAWS. 

181. If you have any kind of surplus property or capital, 
you may hide it, like a miser ; or you may use it yourself in 
enterprises where it enables you to employ the labor of others, 
for which you pay them wages ; or you may let some one else 
use it. 

182. If you part with your property permanently, or sell it, 
you expect to get for it an equivalent, in money or some other 
kind of property. If you part with it temporarily, or lend it 
to another, you reasonably demand an equivalent to repay you 
for the temporary deprivation of its use or enjoyment. Thus, 
if you lend or let your house or farm or money, you require 
and receive rent — the rent of money being called interest. 

183. The rent which you would be willing to pay for a 
two-story frame house depends on its situation, the purpose 
for which you can use it, and the number of persons who 
would like to occupy it. For if it were even very valuable, 
but to you only, and valueless to every one else, it is clear that 
I, the owner, could not demand a high rental, because you 
would refuse to give it. Nor would it be unjust in you to 
offer only a low rental, because, in such a case, if the house is 
valuable to you alone, that proves that it is your skill, your in- 

5 






66 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

dustry, your labor and talent, or your self-denial, and not the 
intrinsic value of the house, which are under the circumstances 
to give it value. 

184. Not only does the rental value of the house depend on 
its situation, but it is likely to vary from year to year, as sim- 
ilar houses are more or less abundant, or as there are more or 
fewer purposes for which they can be used. 

185. If, now, Congress or a state Legislature should enact 
a law prescribing that all two-story frame houses throughout 
a state or the United States should be rented for no more than 
fifty dollars per annum, this would evidently be a ridiculous, 
and moreover an unjust regulation, for such a house may be 
five times as desirable in one situation as in another — that is 
to say, five times as valuable to you, who want to hire its use 
of me. 

186. But take notice that while such a law might tempora- 
rily and in the first instance benefit a part of the poorer peo- 
ple — for whose advantage demagogues would cry out for its 
adoption — it would presently and permanently injure them ; 
for, first, it would at once put a stop to the building of such 
houses, whereby mechanics would be thrown out of employ- 
ment ; second, it would incommode the poorer people, by 
lessening the number of houses in proportion to occupants, 
and confining them therefore to narrower quarters ; and, third, 
capital, thus menaced and oppressed, would take alarm, and be 
rapidly removed to countries where the people were not silly 
enough, and demagogues not powerful enough, to enforce such 
arbitrary regulations. And while not merely the capital which 
was originally intended to be invested in two-story frame 
houses, but much other capital, would thus disappear, and all 
enterprises supporting labor would be checked, the owners of 
two-story frame houses, who would actually lose, would in 
their turn be so much less able to employ labor. Thus, for 
the temporary gain of a small part of the people — the occu- 
piers of two-story frame houses already built — the whole la- 
boring population, the mass of the people, would be seriously 
injured. 



OF USURY LAWS. 67 

187. It is therefore clearly to tlie general advantage that 
the house-owner shall be allowed to make such arrangements 
with his tenants as to rent as shall be mutually agreeable to 
them. 

188. But a two-story frame house is the equivalent of mon- 
ey ; money was expended to build it ; and what is true of the 
house is equally true of the money. If you borrow my house, 
it is to use it, and I exact payment for this use, and graduate 
payment according to the demand for it, just as you agree to 
pay according to its value to you. If you borrow of me a 
thousand dollars, it is equally to use it: you may want to 
build with this sum a two-story frame house. Clearly the law 
ought not to interfere either to compel you to pay more or 
me to receive less than we can mutually agree shall be a fair 
rental or interest for the money. 

189. Obviously no Legislature can tell beforehand what I 
ought to pay or you to receive as rent for your money any 
more than for your house, because it can not take into account 
all the various and varying circumstances of each case. It is 
just as ridiculous, unjust, and injurious to the mass of the peo- 
ple to prohibit men from paying more than seven per cent, for 
money as to declare that they shall pay no more than fifty 
dollars a year rent for a two-story frame house. 

190. For in the one case, as in the other, capital, arbitrarily 
interfered with, seeks other uses, and flies away to freer re- 
gions, in each case to the injur]/ of the non-capitalist class, be- 
cause the wages fund is lessened if capital is diminished. 

191. In practical effect, as money is a form of capital easily 
concealed, a usury law works in this way: Some capital is 
sent away to places where no such law prevails, as from New 
York to our Western States; some remains, the owners pre- 
ferring to keep it near at hand, and of this a part is invested 
in securities, such as railway bonds, and thus also substantially 
goes to enterprises in other states ; and for that which is actu- 
ally lent out at home, the borrower is obliged to pay a premi- 
um, or sum down on receiving the loan, which really raises the 
rate he pavs, and raises it in a manner unprofitable to him. be- 



68 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

1 

cause it obliges him to pay a considerable sum down, of which 
he entirely loses the use, and on which he gets no interest. 
Moreover, where usury laws prevail and arc enforced, borrow- 
ers have generally to fee an agent or middle-man, who receives 
the premium, in order to save the lender harmless against the 
law. Thus not only do usury laws make capital less abun- 
dant — and of course enterprises and wages less in the same 
measure — but the borrower himself is usually injured by hav- 
ing to pay premiums graduated upon his individual necessities, 
and not upon the general demand for money. 

192. On the other hand, many of the Western States will 
show you the advantage, not merely to a country, but to the 
individual laboring man, of letting borrower and lender arrange 
their own terms. These states were rapidly built up on bor- 
rowed capital, which they drew from the East by the offer of 
high rates of interest. Cultivating a rich soil, and settled on 
cheap lands, the Western farmers could afford to pay high 
rates of interest, because their returns were very great. An 
Indiana farmer twenty years ago could well afford to give 
twenty per cent, for money, because if he used it to buy Con- 
gress land and plant corn, his first crop often paid for his 
whole investment. "If I can make thirty per cent., why 
should I hesitate to pay fifteen?" said a sensible Western 
farmer to me only a few years ago. Obviously he was right ; 
and a law prohibiting him from paying more than seven would 
have been an injury to him and to hundreds of others like him 
— namely, laboring men without capital, but able to make ex- 
traordinary gains by their labor if only they could borrow a 
little capital. It would have injured them, because they could 
have borrowed no money at a low rate. Take, for instance, a 
laboring man who, by saving his wages, was able to buy one 
hundred and sixty acres of Congress land, but must borrow 
the means to plant his crop and harvest it. He could afford 
to pay a high rate of interest ; he could not afford to let his 
land lie idle. It teas the poor man who tvas benefited by the 
power to borrow, of which a usury law would have deprived 
him by keeping money out of the state. 



OF BANKS, BANKING, AND CREDIT. 



69 



193. It is sometimes said that high interest eats up the poor. 
But plainly it is only the improvident or speculative poor who 
suffer. On the contrary, it ought to be said that natural rates 
of interest will make men more prudent in entering upon new 
enterprises ; for they will more accurately count the cost, and 
will be less apt to expose themselves to vicissitudes and 
chances. Many a man borrows at seven per cent., and pays a 
premium making his interest equal to ten or twelve, who 
would hesitate to borrow at ten or twelve per cent, outright. 

194. Bear in mind, then, that usury laws are injurious chiefly 
to those who labor for wages, by lessening the wages fund of 
the country, and by disabling them from borrowing sums by 
the help of which they might, with energy and prudence, be- 
come capitalists in their turn, and achieve independence. 

195. You see, therefore, how short-sighted is the policy of 
those who oppose the repeal of usury laws in the states, and 
have even demanded that Congress shall enact such a law to 
apply to the whole United States. 



XXIII. 

OF BANKS, BANKING, AND CBEDIT. 

196. If I have a thousand dollars which I shall need to use 
three months from now, but do not need in the mean time, it 
would be an advantage to me to be able to lend it out at in- 
terest for three months. But it might happen that you want- 
ed to use a thousand dollars for three months and no more; 
and it would be an advantage to you to be able to borrow, not 
for a year or a longer term, but for three months only. If we 
two could know of each other's wants at the right time, both 
of us would be benefited ; and not we two only, but also all 
whom our joint arrangement enabled you to employ with my 
thousand dollars, and me with the interest I received of you. 

197. In every civilized community there are daily hundreds, 
or rather hundreds of thousands, of such instances ; and banks 



70 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

are established to enable the borrower and lender to be quick- 
ly accommodated. Experience has shown that the demand of 
lenders can be foretold, depending, as it does, upon business 
transactions arising out of commerce, manufactures, and agri- 
culture, which have their regular periods. A banker, there- 
fore, acts upon his knowledge of the laws of commerce and 
the laws of nature, which tell him that money realized by one 
set of transactions may be safely loaned to persons engaged in 
another set, to be returned in time to be used for a third, and 
so on. You can see, for instance, that a miller, having sold 
his flour, can lend his money to a farmer, who wants to plant 
his crop ; provided that at harvest the farmer, who will then 
sell his crop, will return the loan to the miller. The store- 
keeper, with whom laborers spend their wages for the necessa- 
ries of life, receives meantime money, which he may lend to 
the miller in case he should want to repair his machinery. 

198. A bank is an association to facilitate such loans, and 
its interests are therefore harmonious with those of the whole 
community, and especially with those of the class who work 
for wages ; because the less capital lies idle, the more will be at 
the disposal of those who want to employ labor and pay wages. 

199. A bank is in fact an association for the safe-keeping 
and the loaning of money. It becomes responsible to us for 
the money we deposit with it ; allows us to draw checks at will 
against our deposits ; in some cases pays us a low rate of in- 
terest on the sums we leave with it ; and makes its profit by 
lending at higher rates. As it is responsible to us for our 
money, it must lend on good security only, and must know the 
character as well as the circumstances of borrowers ; and as it 
must return us our money at any time, and without previous 
notice, its managers can lend only at short dates, or " on call" 
— that is, to be repaid by the borrower after a short interval, 
or on demand. And it is to the banker's interest not only to 
make as many loans as possible, but to make them prudently, 
to competent men on good security ; for he has capital of his 
own at stake, and if he should fail to pay his depositors on de- 
mand, they would close his bank and seize his property. 



OF BANKS, BANKING, AND CREDIT. 71 

200. Thus you see that a bank is a means for the economic- 
al use of capital ; and every economy of this kind makes more 
abundant the fund out of which wages are paid, and thus se- 
cures a greater range and amount of employment to those who 
work for wages. 

201. What is thus true of banks is, of course, equally true 
of credit in general. If a mechanic, on the strength of his 
good name and of his chest of tools, can borrow a hundred 
dollars for a year or for a term of years, and if he has a profita- 
ble use for the money, evidently he is benefited by the credit 
he has. He may use it to pay the wages of men he employs ; 
and with the help of a small loan may in time achieve real in- 
dependence. And if, after having accumulated property, his 
character and property secure him credit for ten thousand dol- 
lars, and enable him to employ fifty or a hundred men, still 
that credit would be a benefit not only to him, but to all whom 
by its help he was able to employ for wages. 

202. Thus credit is useful to the poor, and not merely to the 
rich ; and to the many, and not only to the individuals who 
have or use it, 

203. But it may be misused; as if I should borrow money 
to be used in an enterprise, as a mill, which was unprofitable. 
Here my laborers would still receive the money in wages. I 
should lose that ; but they and the mass of laborers also would 
lose, secondarily, because the capital sunk or lost in the un- 
profitable mill would be dead ; it would never more be avail- 
able for wages or consumption ; it could not increase, and 
would produce no profits available for wages ; and by every 
such loss of capital, the whole community, including, as you 
plainly see, the laborers for wages— the non-capitalists as well 
as the capitalists — are the poorer. Thus when a bad law 
tempts or forces capital into naturally unprofitable industries, 
this is a loss to the mass of the laborers as well as to the 
owners of the capital. 

204. In many cases, indeed, the individual capitalist prudent- 
ly saves himself from loss, by insurance. Thus when a mill 
01 factory is burned down, or swept away by a broken dam, 



12 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

the owners may receive its full value from an insurance com- 
pany ; they may use this money to rebuild their factory, and 
thus give temporary employment to a large number of men ; 
and to a superficial view the loss might appear a gain. But 
you must see that, first, the operatives stand idle while the 
mill is rebuilding : or if they seek employment elsewhere, do 
so at a loss to themselves by the cost of removal, and at a loss 
to others of their own class by increasing the supply of their 
kind of labor at the very time that the demand is diminished ; 
and, second, the old mill rebuilt will only give employment to 
its former operatives, while if the mill had not been destroyed, 
the capital used in rebuilding it would have been available for 
a new mill or other enterprise, which would have given em- 
ployment to an additional number of hands. 

205. Thus you see that destruction of capital works to the 
injury of the non-capitalist class ; and that the Chicago fire, 
though it gave employment for a time to a multitude of car- 
penters, masons, bricklayers, and others, and caused an artificial 
and seeming prosperity in that place, was a loss to the mass of 
our population, because in fact it lessened the capital, surplus, 
or wealth of the country, and thereby impaired the means of 
giving employment all over the land. The Boston and Chi- 
cago fires were followed by a general stagnation in business 
all over the country, because capital which would have been 
used in other enterprises and expenditures, and consequently 
in the payment of wages for other and new production, was 
concentrated in Boston and Chicago, and used to repair waste 
and losses : to replace what had been destroyed. 

206. But an unprofitable enterprise is just as much a de- 
struction of capital as a fire; and if I should hire you for a 
year to carry bricks from one side of a road to the other and 
back, though you might in the mean time live from your 
wages, I should have sunk my capital, and the mass of the la- 
borers in the community would have suffered a loss, because 
there would be less capital out of which to pay wages. 

207. Thus you see that credit, which is only capital in an- 
other shape, can not be misused without inflicting a loss on the 



OF BANK-NOTES. 73 

whole community, and especially on the laborers for wages. 
And you see how foolish are the people who would like to have 
the government borrow vast sums of money to be expended in 
what are called " public works," of doubtful and certainly not 
established utility ; for if it were certain that a new canal or 
railroad or other so-called " improvement " would be profitable, 
private capital would quickly create it. The plea is that such 
projects would give employment to great numbers of men. 
But if they are employed in unprofitable enterprises, they and 
the mass of laborers are in the end injured by the loss of capi- 
tal, which involves a decreased fund out of which wages may 
be paid. 



XXIV. 

OF BANK-NOTES. 

208. Besides receiving money on deposit, and lending it cnt 
on security, which is their proper and legitimate business, ban^s 
sometimes issue notes or bills of their own. 
, 209. This is a peculiarly profitable business : for a bank-bill 
bears no interest; it is liable to be destroyed by fire or water; 
it is likely to remain out for a considerable period — indeed, is- 
sue-banks often take pains to cause their bills to be circulated 
at a great distance from the bank in order to keep them out 
the longer ; and, finally, as the bank-bill becomes a medium of 
exchange, the people are in a manner compelled to accept it. 
But if a bank fails, the laborers for wages, the non-capitalists, 
are sure to suffer most of the loss which occurs from the de- 
preciation of the bills. A bank note or bill has therefore 
some of the features of a forced loan by the bank from the 
public. 

210. In the United States we have been so long accustomed 
to see the issue of bills made the most conspicuous business 
of a bank, that in the common apprehension a bank is synon- 
ymous with a paper-mill, a machine to create shin-plasters, and 
to suspend specie payments whenever, by granting unwise 

D 



74 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

credit and imprudent loans, it has helped to create a commer 
cial revulsion. 

211.1 want you, therefore, to fix in your mind the fact that 
the issue of bills is not a necessary, and hardly a legitimate 
part of the banking business ; that the most solid and also the 
most profitable banks in the world do not issue notes at all; 
and that bank-notes, though a convenience, are not absolutely 
necessary to any people. California, for instance, had in 1873 
a number of remarkably solid, useful, and profitable banks, but 
it had only two banks of issue ; and as it might have had 
many more, their absence is a proof that they were not needed. 

212. A bank-note is not money ; on the contrary, it is only 
a promise to pay money. It is one of several kinds of promises 
to pay ; and differs from the others mainly in these particulars 
— that it bears no interest, and that the holder has no security 
in his own hands. 

213. If you have in your pocket a twenty-dollar gold-piece, 
you have actually in your possession that much value. But if 
you have in your pocket a bank-note for twenty dollars, you 
have only a certificate that a bank, which may be a thousand 
miles distant, and of whose managers you know nothing, has 
your twenty dollars. 

214. Now, if you wished to carry about with you two or 
three hundred, or even one hundred dollars, it would obviously 
be more convenient to carry bank-notes to that amount than 
money ; for the paper bills are lighter than coin, and more 
easily concealed from thieves. 

215. This convenience of carriage and concealment is the 
only excuse for the existence of bank-bills, and it is a sufficient 
excuse where men need to carry about considerable sums. 
But a laboring man, whose whole wages for a week amount per- 
haps to less than twenty dollars, and who pays out the greater 
part of this sum at once for subsistence, is not inconvenienced 
by the weight of his money. He does not need bank-bills; 
and there is no need for small bills to accommodate him. 
Small bills, of less denominations than five dollars, are in some 
respects a convenience ; but their use drives coin out of circu' 



OF BANK-NOTES. 75 

lation, and so does an injury, in a time of commercial panic, 
by helping to cripple the banks. Moreover, the poor, who are 
usually the holders of small bills, in a time of bank failures are 
sure to suffer loss from such bills ; and it is not fair that they 
should be thus exposed. 

216. For these reasons the issue of bank-bills for sums smaller 
than five dollars ought to be totally prohibited, 

217. A bank-note, being only a certificate that the bank has 
the bill-holder's money, may be accepted as a public conven- 
ience, if the public is willing ; but as every man has a right to 
his own property at all times, it is clear that the bank has no 
right to refuse me money — which is mine — whenever I present 
its bill. You may for your own convenience allow the bank 
to keep your twenty-dollar gold-piece ; but you ought to have 
the power to call the money back into your own possession at 
any time ; for if you could not do that, you would keep your 
money and refuse the bill. 

218. Hence bank-notes can not be made a legal tender, be- 
cause they are not money, but only the certificates showing that 
somebody else has your money ; and they ought always to be 
redeemable at will in coin, which alone is money. 

219. When a bank issues notes or bills, its object is to gain 
money by borrowing wuthout interest, of the general public. 
If it issues one hundred thousand dollars in bills, that implies 
that it holds one hundred thousand dollars in money in its 
vaults or till, ready to redeem these bills. In practice, however, 
banks do not keep so much money idle ; they keep on hand 
only such a smaller sum as general experience has shown to be 
usually sufficient for redemption. But experience has also 
shown that all bankers are not prudent or wise ; and hence 
the government now rightly requires that a bank, before it is- 
sues bills or notes, shall deposit a sum in property at all times 
readily convertible into coin, which shall be held for the re- 
demption of the bills. United States bonds, which are the 
best security we have, and most readily convertible into money, 
are used for this purpose. 

220. With the management of banks which confine them- 



^Q POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

selves to the business of receiving deposits and making loans 
the government has no right to interfere — any more than it 
does with the business of a merchant, farmer, or shopkeeper. 
For I have no more right to expect the government to care for 
the safe-keeping of my money than of my goods in store, my 
house, or other property. 

221. Banks of issue, however, stand in a different category. 
They exercise a power over the public so great and so liable 
to abuse, in the privilege granted them to issue non-interest- 
bearing notes, without security in the holders' hands, things 
which take the place of money, that the people have a right 
to demand that such issues shall be made only under rigid 
checks. 

222. It is proper, therefore, that the government shall require 
the deposit of United States bonds to an amount greater than 
the amount of bills issued. Should the bank fail, these bonds 
would be sold by the government, and out of the proceeds the 
bill-holders would be paid first. Under this, which is called 
the National Banking System, the bill-holders are secure against 
loss by failure of the bank; and there is no doubt that this 
system is more secure, and of greater public convenience than 
any system of state banks. It was first applied by the State 
of New York to its own banks ; and Secretary Chase, seeing 
its merits, applied it to the whole country. 

223. With this ought to go a law rigidly requiring the banks 
at all times to redeem their bills in money ; and providing for 
the instant forfeit of a bank's charter the moment it refuses 
this, its primary duty. Unfortunately, hitherto in this country 
banks have been allowed to suspend specie payments in every 
great commercial panic ; and as they long ago learned to count 
upon this, they were induced, by the security of exemption 
from punishment, to make imprudent loans, and for their own 
gains to help on the coming crisis. 

224. But with a sufficient deposit of bonds in the Treasury, 
a prohibition against small bills, and rigid punishment for a 
suspension of specie payments, there is no sound reason why 
any one who desires should not be allowed to set up a bank of 



OF BANK-NOTES. 77 

issue, in any part of the country. If they become too numer* 
ous, they will cease to be profitable, for the bills will be sent 
home for redemption too constantly, and the superfluous banks 
will wind up their affairs. 

225. You will see by this the folly of the debates in Con- 
gress about regulating the number of banks of issue, and their 
distribution over the country — as though, when national bank- 
bills circulate with equal credit in every part of the United 
States, it could make any difference where the banks happened 
to be placed. 

226. Also you will see the ignorance of those who cry out 
against national banks as monopolies, making huge profits out 
of the people. That this is the rankest of follies will be plain 
to you if you remember that a bank-note is used only as a con- 
venience by- the people ; and that, under proper regulations 
promptly enforced, banks of issue are a real and important con- 
venience ; while banks of deposit and credit are, as you have 
seen, of the greatest and most positive advantage to the mass 
of laborers for wages. 

227. If those who oppose banks would demand a resump- 
tion of specie payments by the banks, they would do the coun- 
try a real and very great service ; but instead of that they cry 
for " more greenbacks," about which I will next proceed to tell 
you something. But I must first explain to you that, under 
the present currency system, the national banks are obliged by 
law to redeem their notes, not in money, but in greenbacks ; 
which means that they exchange their own for the govern- 
ment's irredeemable promise to pay money. If two wrongs 
ever made a right, this plan might have some merit. It would 
be better, because simpler, to absolve the banks from redemp- 
tion of any kind for a specified time ; and thus separate their 
currency from that of the government. Then they would at 
least prepare themselves for resumption, which now they do 
aot. At present every attempt to withdraw greenbacks from 
circulation — the first duty of the government, if it is honest — 
threatens and alarms the banks, who see the power of redeem- 
ing their notes lessened, and themselves fatally embarrassed ; 



78 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

and thus, while we keep up the absurd farce of making the 
banks redeem their notes in greenbacks — which means only 
that we exchange one irredeemable promise to pay for another 
— we force them to oppose with all their strength all attempts 
by the government to redeem and withdraw its greenbacks; 
and in fact oblige the banks to lend their countenance, openly 
or secretly, to every movement for " more greenbacks." For 
obviously, if the issue of these government notes could be 
doubled, the banks would find it easier and cheaper to redeem 
their notes in them. 



XXV. 

OF u MOBE GBEENBACKS." 

228. A Greenback is a non-interest-bearing promise to pay 
money, issued by the government, and for whose redemption 
the holder has no security in his own hands. It is, so far, pre- 
cisely like a bank-note ; but it has two features which make it 
differ from a common bank-note : you can not sue the issuer 
of the note — the government, namely — and that has used its 
power to make it a legal tender. A bank-note, as you saw a 
while back, has some of the features of a forced loan ; the 
greenback has all — it is a forced loan. If I should compel 
you to give me your dollars in exchange for a piece of paper 
on which I had written simply "IOU" so much, that would 
be a forced loan — you would probably call it a robbery : and 
that is precisely what the government did when it issued ir- 
redeemable promises to pay, and made them a legal tender. 

229. If a banker issues one hundred thousand dollars in 
bills, that is evidence that he is the owner of one hundred 
thousand dollars in money or other property, which — or, more 
correctly, one hundred and ten thousand dollars — he has de- 
posited in the Treasury as security that he will redeem his 
notes on demand. 

230. If now a banker were to set up a claim to issue one 



of "more greenbacks." 79 

hundred thousand dollars in bills, on the plea that he had no 
money or property at all with which to redeem them, he would 
be rightly thought insane ; and if he persisted in such an ab- 
surdity, he would be sent hj his friends to the lunatic asylum. 
If he should demand, besides, that these bills which he desires 
to issue should be declared a legal tender, no doubt he would 
be put into a strait-jacket, or sent to the incurable ward, and 
the lowest attendant in the asylum would laugh at him as an 
absurd creature. 

231. But this is precisely what the government does in 
issuing greenbacks. It issues promises to pay, on the plea that 
it has no money ; and it makes them a legal tender because 
they are not good. For if they were good, it would not need 
to force us to accept them, which is the only object of the 
legal-tender clause ; and if the government had money, it could 
have no excuse or occasion for issuing notes. 

232. For you must not forget, what was shown you under 
the head of Taxes, that a government can earn or create noth- 
ing ; it is not a producer. Again, you saw, under the head 
of Money, that when the government coins money it does not 
create gold or silver ; nor does it add to their value by coining 
them ; it does not even own the metal it coins ; but only, for 
the general convenience, stamps your or my or John Smith's 
gold with its certificate that each piece contains a specified 
quantity of the metal. 

233. This service plainly gives it no right to declare any 
thing else money ; but if it did, it would be you or I or John 
Smith, and not the government itself, who would have the 
right to carry iron or paper to the mint to be stamped. 

234. Nor does its authority to declare the gold it stamps a 
legal tender give it power to make any thing — even gold — a 
legal tender for more than its actual and real value. For in 
all this it creates nothing r it only exercises a power delegated 
to it for the general convenience, to make public declaration 
of a value already existing. 

235. Let me repeat to you once more that a government 
has no power to create value in any way or sense ; for it does 



80 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

r.one of the things out of which, we have seen before, value 
grows : it neither produces, nor exchanges, nor saves ; it only 
expends or destroys whatever is given to it by society. It is, 
in fact, like a pauper ; for, like a pauper, it exists by the con- 
tributions of others ; and as it can have no surplus, but neces- 
sarily lives from hand to mouth, and by the labor of others, a 
pauper might as well put out demand notes as a government; 
for the bills of each would represent, not existing values, but 
values destroyed and extinct, and therefore not values at all, but 
nothing. If you will reflect that in order to call in and redeem 
the greenbacks the government would have to first raise money 
by taxes — or by what is in the long run the same thing, by 
sales of bonds — you will see that the greenback is simply a 
certificate that the government has actually spent and destroy- 
ed that much property ; and that, as before said, it represents, 
not value existing, but value extinct, which is nothing. 

236. You will see by this the extraordinary hallucination of 
those people who cry out for " more greenbacks." In a time 
of war, when the expenditures of the government enormously 
exceeded the largest sum it could raise from taxes, it was au- 
thorized to borrow money. It borrowed many hundreds of 
millions, upon bonds, or obligations promising to repay the 
lenders at a certain time, with interest at a stipulated rate. This 
was perfectly legitimate and honest. But, by a singular blun- 
der, the government also chose to borrow money by a forced 
loan from its citizens, for which it gave, not interest-bearing 
bonds, but notes promising to pay, but neither stipulating time 
of repayment nor granting interest for the use of the money. 
Such a note made by an individual would be void ; made by 
the government, it was tolerated, on the express ground that 
the government needed vast sums for its current expenditures, 
and must get money where and in whatever way it could. 

237. But circumstances have changed. The taxes now 
equal the expenditures, and there is an annual surplus even. 
How then can we have " More greenbacks V! On what ex- 
cuse, in what way, for what purpose, can the government 
borrow money ? What shall it do with the money for which 



_ 



OF COMMERCE. 81 

it is to issue " more greenbacks V The " more greenback " 
people seem to have perceived tliis dilemma, and to meet it 
they have begun to urge a great system of " public works " 
— canals, railroads, and other costly improvements. But if 
we are to run in debt for these, surely it is better to do so 
honestly, by selling our bonds, than dishonestly, by increasing 
the amount of a forced loan which ought long ago to have 
been paid out of the surplus revenue, instead of redeeming 
bonds not yet due, 



XXVI. 

OF COMMEBCE. 

238. You have seen, under the head of Property, that the 
surplus, or that part of his product not needed by the pro- 
ducer for his own consumption, has no real value, and can 
not become wealth or capital unless he can exchange it for 
something else. 

239. It is not less true that the value of the surplus grows 
in the precise measure in which the facility of exchanging it is 
increased. 

240. The Nebraska farmer, unable to get his corn to mar- 
ket, is forced to burn it as fuel ; and no matter how rich his 
land, or how great his crop, the surplus on his hands is after 
all worth only so much wood. If he could send it to Chica- 
go, it would be worth a good deal more than so much fuel. 
If he could as cheaply send it to New York as to Chicago, it 
would bring him a still greater price ; and its value to him 
would be increased with every market he could touch. "When 
I was a boy, Ohio had no railroads, and the farmers near Cin- 
cinnati used to sell eggs in that market for three cents a 
dozen, because that was their only market. Eailroads have 
so greatly increased for them the facility of exchanging eggs, 
that they now get even in Cincinnati probably at least five 
times as much as formerly. You can see that they gain this 

6 D2 












82 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

great advantage simply by increased facility of exchange. 
Railroads have extended their market for selling eggs. 

241. JSTor is this increased facility of exchanging eggs foi 
other products a benefit to the farmer alone ; for if formerly, 
for lack of cheap transportation, eggs were very cheap in 
Cincinnati, they were very dear in many other places. To 
facilitate the exchange only equalized the prices, and thus in- 
creased the comfort of the mass of consumers, and also the 
wealth of the mass of producers. For if eggs were any 
where very dear, that is a proof that they were scarce there ; 
and facility of exchange created abundance where before was 
scarcity. 

242. Pray fix in your mind therefore this fundamental 
truth, that every impediment to the exchange of products 
is an injury ; and that every removal of such an impediment 
is a benefit, because it increases the rewards of the mass of 
producers, and the abundance, and hence the comfort and hap- 
piness of the mass of consumers. 

243. Hence the satisfaction with which people welcome 
railroads ; the benefit of steamboats, steamships, bvidges, and 
all other means by which we decrease the cost of transporta- 
tion. For you can see that if a farmer can send his eggs to 
only one place, Cincinnati, where men want to buy eggs, he 
can not hope to get as much for them as if he could — with 
cheap transportation — send them to any one of a dozen cities. 
And as he would send his eggs only to places where they 
would bring a higher price — where therefore eggs were scarce 
— cheap transportation, by creating abundance in those places, 
would benefit consumers there. 

244. Commerce means the exchange of products. If I 
have more hides than I need, and you have more clothing 
than you need, and if I want clothing and you hides, it is 
plain that we shall make an exchange of our surpluses if we 
can get together and agree upon a price. It is clear, too, 
that we shall both benefit by such an exchange, because when 
it is made, each of us will have less of the articles which he 
could not use, and more of those which he wanted. 



OF COMMERCE. 83 

245. Moreover, you can see that it would be an advantage 
to you, having clothing to exchange for hides, if you could 
find, not me alone, but a hundred others, with surplus hides to 
exchange for clothing, because you w^ould hope thus to get 
more hides for your clothing. It would be an equal advan- 
tage for me if I were the only possessor of hides within the 
reach of a hundred men having clothing to exchange. But, 
evidently, all the owners of surplus hides would be benefited 
if they could come in contact with all the possessors of sur- 
plus clothing — because thus the market of all would be broad- 
ened, and the price would be equalized for the mass. 

246. Thus you see that unimpeded commerce is a benefit 
to the mass of producers ; and that every impediment pre- 
venting a part of the owners of surplus clothing from reach- 
ing a market of hides, while it may be an advantage to the 
few who do reach it, and who would thus have a monopoly, 
would be an injury, first, to those who were prevented from 
reaching it ; but, second, and more important, to the whole 
of those who were anxious to exchange hides for clothing. 

P47. Every impediment to free exchange, therefore, whether 
natural or artificial, is an injury to the mass of consumers — 
who are the whole people. 

248. Nevertheless, every act of exchange which takes place, 
even where a close monopoly exists on one side, or in regard 
to one pfoduct, is still an unmixed benefit, for it increases 
abundance and comfort, though in a less measure than if the 
monopoly did not impede free exchange ; and thus it would 
be wrong to say that men, under any circumstances, become 
poorer by voluntary exchange. It is, however, quite certain 
that capital increases far more slowly where impediments exist 
to a free exchange of surplus products. 

249. Impediments to the exchange of products are either 
natural or artificial. The natural obstacles are very numerous, 
but may be comprised under the general head of distance. 
A river is a serious impediment to commerce, until it is 
bridged or a ferry-boat crosses it ; an ocean is a greater im- 
pediment, and can be overcome only with the help of ships. 



84 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

Differences in language and habits are natural impediments. 
Providence, which placed natural impediments in the way of 
the exchange of products, gave to different and distant parts 
of the earth different climates, soils, and capacities for pro- 
duction, so that what is produced in one country is needed 
in many others ; and every part of the earth is fitted to 
produce something which is desired by the people of other 
parts. 

250. You will quickly see the wisdom of the Creator in 
this, for it compels mankind to intercourse with each other ; 
and commerce is thus one of the main agents in spreading 
civilization over the world, in bringing men and nations to- 
gether in a humane and brotherly spirit ; in subduing bar- 
barism, preserving the peace, and in increasing constantly 
the area over which industry and self-denial are rewarded, 
property is made secure, and civilization becomes possible. 

251. Imagine a nation which was so favored by climate 
and soil that it could and did produce within its bounds all 
and every thing that its members required, and you will see 
that such a nation would soon cease to have any influence 
upon the outer world — for good at least ; it would become 
selfish ; would scorn, because it did not need, commerce ; 
would lose the immense advantage of intercourse with other 
nations ; and, having no such commerce or intercourse, would 
presently contract vices, such as ignorance, superstition, con- 
tempt of foreigners, and disregard of justice, which would de- 
grade its civilization. But imagine the earth divided among 
nations, each sufficient to itself, and you will see Africa or 
Greenland reproduced all over the planet. 

252. Moreover, God, whose design in surrounding our lives 
with difficulties evidently was to force us to exercise ingenu- 
ity, courage, persistence, patience, daring, and enterprise — all 
those which we call manly virtues — had this in view also in 
creating impediments to intercourse between men in distant 
parts of the earth, but at the same time making such inter- 
course, for the purpose of exchanging products, absolutely 
essential to our comfort and highest well-being ; and im- 



_^^^^MMMH 



OF COMMERCE. 85 

pelling us therefore, by the most powerful motives, to over- 
come the impediments he has created ; and making us feel 
that toe are the higher and the better, as well as the toealthier 
and more comfortable beings, in the measure that we do over- 
come them. There is no doubt that the character of the 
whole Chinese nation has been degraded by their long-con- 
tinued abstinence from foreign commerce, and their conse- 
quent seclusion from other nations. Had they during the 
many centuries of this seclusion been actively engaged in 
foreign commerce, it is certain they would have been less 
selfish, less ignorant, less superstitious, more courageous and 
enterprising, and more truthful and just, than as a nation 
they now are. 

253. Artificial obstacles to exchange arise out of laws, which 
either prohibit exchange with foreigners entirely, as formerly 
in Japan, or lay a penalty on such exchange, as regards certain 
products : this is still done in many countries, among them 
our own. 

254. All such artificial restrictions are impolitic, injurious, 
and, unless all commerce is prohibited, necessarily partial and 
unjust. 

255. It is possible to imagine a nation like the Japanese de- 
termining for religious or other reasons to seclude themselves 
entirely from the world ; and therefore totally prohibiting 
commercial as well as other intercourse with foreigners. In 
such a case the whole people accept less abundance, and deny 
themselves comforts and luxuries which they can not them- 
selves produce. All are injured, all suffer loss and depriva- 
tion ; and if injustice is done, it is by all to all. 

256. But among civilized nations, like our own, the pro- 
hibitions and penalties on foreign exchange are nowhere of 
this character ; they are always partial — being laid only upon 
a few articles ; and thus an essential injustice is done to those 
who would, if they were allowed, exchange their products for 
those articles which are forbidden them, or who must pay a 
penalty for such exchange. For instance, if I am a farmer, 
who need to exchange my surplus wheat for clothing, it is an 



86 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

injustice to me if the law forbids me to make this exchange 
wherever I may choose ; for, as we have seen, if by any imped- 
iment it narrows my market, it lowers my profit. I may be 
able to get more cloth for my wheat in Germany than in my 
own neighborhood : a law which makes me pay a penalty for 
doing so is clearly partial and unjust. Or I may be a black- 
smith, and prefer Swedish bars for my horse-shoes ; why 
should you, who make American bars, urge a law to make me 
pay a penalty for my preference ? 

257. Fix in your mind that Commerce is not a swindling 
transaction, but a purely beneficial operation ; that every act 
of honest trade increases the happiness and prosperity of all 
who are concerned in it ; that when we two exchange products, 
each is the more comfortable and the better off for the ex- 
change — for each has given that which he wanted less for that 
which he wanted more. 

258. God, who placed natural obstacles in the way of free 
exchange, has yet made it laudable and beneficial in us to use 
all our strength and ingenuity in overcoming these impediments 
which he has placed in the way of the freest and widest ex- 
change of commodities. 

259. When, therefore, human governments interfere by 
laws (ivhich while they exist it is our duty to obey) to obstruct 
such exchange, they arrogate to themselves authority greater 
thim that assumed by the Creator, and do an injury, moral as 
well as physical, to all who are subject to such laws. 

260. Property, as you have before seen, originates in three 
acts : labor, self-denial, and exchange. A law which should 
forbid men to labor, or limit their right to labor except in 
prescribed ways and hours, ought to be resisted by all sensible 
men as an unjust interference. A law which should limit the 
right of self-denial — or compel me to spend my accumulations 
as fast as I created them, would be no less unjust and mon- 
strous. But a law which interferes with my right to exchange 
my surplus where I like is only more endurable to us because 
we are accustomed to it. It does not differ in principle ; and 
how potent custom is in making us tolerant of unjust laws we 



i.^^MH 



OF COMMERCE. Si 

already see in the ease with which men submit to trades-union 
regulations limiting the duration and the manner of men's la- 
boring. 

261. Nor is it strange that the trades-unions, who interfere 
with the right of a man to labor when, where, or how he likes, 
favor also the enactment of laws unjustly and in a partial man- 
ner impeding the exchange of products or commerce. Their 
course, in this respect, is logical. They abhor abundance, and 
make scarcity their god. 

262. The most magnificent and conclusive example of the 
benefits of unobstructed commerce is afforded by our own 
country. The Constitution of the United States provides 
carefully for the most entire and unobstructed freedom in the 
interchange of products over the greater and the most fertile 
part of the American continent, and among thirty-seven differ- 
ent political communities ; and no one doubts that it is to this 
absolute freedom of exchange, guarded with the utmost jeal- 
ousy against every exaction and interference, that we owe our 
wonderful advance in wealth, as well as in the ingenuity and 
intelligence of our people. Consider what must have been 
our condition had Virginia been allowed to lay restrictions and 
penalties on commercial intercourse with Pennsylvania, or New 
York to interfere with her citizens when they sought to ex- 
change products with Massachusetts, or the North with the 
South, or the East with the West, as was done under the Con- 
federation. 

263. Yet if any such interference is beneficial, it would seem 
to be more necessary to protect the West against New En- 
gland than against Europe ; or the South against the North 
than against England and France. For, the plea for such in- 
terference being that it is necessary to enable the establishment 
of manufactures at home, and to maintain a high rate of wages, 
it is clear that Michigan or Georgia manufactures, for instance, 
can be more easily undersold by Massachusetts or New York 
than by English or German manufacturers, who must carry 
their goods so much farther to market, and must also draw 
their raw materials from a greater distance ; and an iron-mas* 



88 



POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 



ter in Indiana or Missouri would feel the competition of his 
Pennsylvania or New Jersey rival far more keenly than that 
of an Englishman, who must send his iron three thousand 
miles farther to market. Yet the Western and Southern 
manufacturers make no complaint of such home competition. 

264. The Southern leaders were more logical. They wished 
to destroy the Union because they imagined that thus they 
could set up home manufactures in the Southern States ; and 
their attempt was really, and in many cases avowedly, a pro- 
tectionist measure ; an intentional and deliberate interference 
with the free exchange of products. 

265. You must understand, however, that the people of the 
United States have long and deliberately consented to a policy 
in regard to external commerce which I have shown you to 
be injurious to the general welfare. No political party is yet 
united in demanding that the people shall be guaranteed the 
right of free exchange. Nor can it be doubted that the Con- 
gress has power to lay duties discriminating in favor of some 
branches of industry — and of course against others ; for it is 
the essence of such discrimination that it shall injure some in 
order to benefit others. This is one of the great battle-grounds 
of opinion in the United States ; and as many large individual 
interests are arranged in favor of such discrimination, and as 
the masses who are injured have not the means for as compact 
an organization as the few whom self-interest guides, it is 
probable that we shall see protective tariffs for many years 
cumbering our statute-books, and lessening the general pros- 
perity. 

266. When the Constitution was adopted, most statesmen 
still believed that a country needed such interference with the 
free exchange of products, to enable the establishment of home 
manufactures ; hence the power given to Congress to " regu- 
late commerce," which undoubtedly means and has always 
been held to imply the power to interfere with exchange, not 
merely for purposes of revenue, but for the object of "protect- 
ing," as it is called, home manufacturers. The first tariff or 
scale of external duties enacted by Congress had this object in 



OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 89 

view; and though unjust, partial, and impolitic, there is no 
doubt that Congress has the constitutional right thus to de- 
range industry by partial laws. 

267. One plea on which protective tariffs, as such interfer- 
ences are called, have been justified, is that thus only can we 
have diversified industries. If this were true, it would really 
justify the protectionist system — -for diversified industries are 
a great benefit to a nation. But in the next section I shall 
show you that so far from favoring a diversity of industries, 
protective tariffs have really, in our country, discouraged and 
destroyed many small industries, and created a powerful and 
to the people irresistible tendency of both capital and labor 
toward a few great industries. 



XXVII. 

OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTBIES. 

268. That nation or people is happiest which has the most 
widely diversified industries ;.. because its members will be led 
inevitably to the exercise of great and varied ingenuity and 
enterprise, while at the same time capital, the fruit and re- 
ward of labor, will be more equally distributed among the 
population than in a country where but a few industries are 
pursued. 

269. Take, for instance, a region devoted to grazing, or to 
the cultivation of cotton only, and you will find the mass of 
the people dull and subordinate, and the wealth in few 
hands. In like manner examine a district devoted mainly to 
the production of crude iron, coal, or cotton fabrics, and you 
will find the mass of the people subordinate, in poor circum- 
stances, comparatively ignorant and unenterprising, and not 
ingenious, while the greater part of the wealth of the com- 
munity is concentrated in a few hands. 

270. But find a district where the people are engaged in a 
multitude of small industries, and you are sure to find wealth 



90 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

more equally divided, comfort more widely diffused, and the 
people more enterprising, intelligent, ingenious, and inde- 
pendent. 

271. To contrive a system of laws, therefore, whose tend- 
ency and effect would be to draw large numbers from the 
smaller industries which they would naturally pursue, and 
concentrate their labors upon a single pursuit, would be to 
degrade the character of such a population, by making it less 
ingenious, enterprising, and independent than before ; and 
this the more if this single industry should be of a kind 
which required, in the mass of those engaged in it, but little 
skill or thought, and at the same time required that much 
capital should be devoted to it. For in that case not only 
would the character of the people deteriorate, but wealth 
would more and more be drawn away from the smaller in- 
dustries, and concentrated in the larger, and the mass of the 
people would become in time less prosperous and comfortable. 

272. Now this grave injury has been done to large classes 
of our population by what is wrongly called the system of 
" Protection to Home Industry" which is simply an interfer- 
ence with the right of free exchange. 

273. To comprehend how " Protective" laws, so called, de- 
grade home industry, and prevent diversity of industries, I 
must first explain to you the natural progress of industry in 
any country — that course which the Creator has laid out by 
what are called Natural Laws. 

274. When a new country begins to receive population, 
men being scarce and land abundant, it is inevitable that wise 
men will turn to industries which require for their prosecu- 
tion the least amount of labor, because the rate of wages will 
be high, laborers being few. Hence in our new territories 
grazing is at first a favorite and profitable occupation. As 
population increases, lands rise in price, and farming is begun ; 
and presently villages make their appearance, where black- 
smiths, carpenters, masons, wagon-makers, and shopkeepers 
gather, to supply the farmers' needs, and afford him for at 
least a part of his surplus products a near market. Capital 



OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 91 

or surplus rapidly increases in a new country ; as population 
continues to stream in, new industries are devised, and the 
region which at first imported every thing except its meat 
becomes more and more self-sustaining ; for capital, intelli- 
gently directed, spies out the wants of the people and the 
natural resources and advantages of the land ; and it is not 
long before even some articles of manufacture begin to be 
exported to neighboring districts. 

275. By this time roads and perhaps railroads have been 
built, and, by lessening the cost of transportation and in- 
creasing production, the cost of living has been greatly 
cheapened ; new enterprises no longer offer such great re- 
wards as at first to capital, and the rate of interest has 
consequently fallen ; increasing population has lowered the 
rate of wages — without, however, necessarily lessening the 
comfort of the laborers, for all prices are also less, as you 
have seen. Finally, there is a numerous class of hired labor- 
ers, whereas in the beginning almost every man was his own 
employer. At this stage what we call manufactures naturally 
arise. Capital, seeking new means of profitable employment, 
provides machinery, raw material, and wages, for the use of 
laborers also seeking new ways to earn a living. 

276. This is the natural course of a country's industries 
where arbitrary and partial laws are not used to force both 
capital and labor out of the channels Nature has provided. 
In this natural development the ingenuity and enterprise of 
the people have constant exercise ; capital is for a long time 
pretty equally diffused, because there will be a great and in- 
creasing diversity of small industries ; the character of the 
population will be high, its independence great, and pros- 
perity will be general. The greater operations of industry, 
which require extreme concentration of both capital and 
labor, will be long deferred, until at last the country's natural 
resources are fully explored, and the accumulation of wealth 
and the increase of population are both so great as to lead 
naturally and safely to such employment for both. The 
stages of development in such a case will be slow, but sure, 



92 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

and there will be no great crisis or panic, nor any marked 
lowering of the condition of the people. Their ingenuity 
and desire for prosperity would lead them to devise new in- 
dustries and control new enterprises as fast as capital and 
labor offered to prosecute them ; and it is an important con- 
sideration that these new enterprises would grow naturally 
out of the conditions of the country, as to climate and pro- 
ductions, and the wants of the people. 

277. Unfortunately this natural and sound growth is not 
permitted. Different motives, among which are national 
pride, a desire for more showy production, the subtle fallacy 
of a " home market," so called, but mainly the greed for 
wealth and supremacy in individuals, unite to bring about 
the adoption of unjust and partial laws, enacted to favor 
some special branch of industry. These laws, under the be- 
guiling name of " Protection to Home Industry," lay heavy 
duties on a few foreign products, in order to enable those 
who produce these articles at home to charge a higher price 
for them, and to give them the command of the home mar- 
ket — which means only, as must be plain to you, to compel 
the mass of the people to buy of the favored individuals at a 
higher price than they could, but for these laws, buy for else- 
where ; in other words, to impede the free exchange of prod- 
ucts. 

278. For instance, New England capitalists — helped, I be- 
lieve, originally by some Southern men — began to clamor for 
duties on foreign-made cotton goods ; and, contrary to the 
wish of the first promoters of cotton manufactures, a high 
duty was put on the importation of foreign calicoes, sheet- 
ings, and other manufactures of cotton. 

279. Of course, a duty on the foreign product is a bounty 
on the home product. The home manufacturer raises his 
price to the price at which the foreigner can sell after he has 
paid the duty. A duty on calicoes, therefore, confessedly 
makes calico — the home as well as the foreign product — 
dear&r than it would otherwise be ; and all who wear calico 
— all the women and children in the land, that is to say — ■ 



OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 93 

must pay more for their dresses, in order that the insignifi- 
cant number engaged in making calicoes at home shall obtain 
their bounty. 

280. Now it has never been pretended that the people of 
New England were starving when a duty was laid on calicoes 
and other cotton goods. They were, according to all ac- 
counts, an extremely industrious and ingenious people, en- 
gaged in such a multitude of small enterprises that " Yankee 
Notions " was the generic name of a great class of small in- 
ventions and products, all useful to mankind. Capital was 
widely dispersed in these petty industries, for which the char- 
acter of the country and its inhabitants was well fitted ; large 
fortunes were few, and not easily accumulated, but the aver- 
age of comfort, intelligence, and public spirit was uncommon- 
ly high. 

281. The effect of the protective duty was, 1st, by offering 
an unnaturally high reward to capital, to draw that away 
from a number of the smaller industries, and concentrate it 
in a few great buildings filled with costly machinery. 2d. To 
draw away a large part of the laboring population from their 
petty industries and their country homes into large manu- 
facturing towns, and to employments which made them more 
dependent and less ingenious and self -helpful than before. 

282. The life of a mill or factory operative being of a kind 
offering few hopes of advancement, and a smaller chance of 
independence than intelligent and enterprising people like 
to submit to, the best class of the New England population 
presently withdrew from it, or never entered it ; but capital 
— then not superabundant in the country — having been di- 
verted to manufacturing on a great scale by the " protective " 
duty, was made less abundant for small enterprises. The 
temptation of cheap and fertile lands then drew off the most 
enterprising population to the Western States ; and the Yan- 
kee girls left the factories to fill the vacant places of those 
who had emigrated to the West. 

283. The manufacturers, to fill the gap, began systematic- 
ally to import foreigners, mostly of a low grade of intelli- 






94 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

gence, and have continued to do this to the present time ; 
with results evident to the country in a gradual but serious 
deterioration in the character of the population, the corrup- 
tion of politics, the increase of vice, crime, and ignorance. 

284. To bring about these evils the women and children of 
the United States were compelled to pay tribute, during a 
great many years, every time they bought a new calico dress 
or a yard of muslin. Meantime this " protection to home in- 
dustry," or favoritism to a few at the cost of the great mass, 
has built up a few very great fortunes, and a large population, 
subject, ignorant, to a large extent the easy prey of dema- 
gogues, and in every way inferior to that it superseded ; the 
average of comfort and prosperity in New England is much 
lower than it was before " Protection ;" and pauperism has 
greatly increased. 

285. You see here that "Protection to Home Industry" 
was a curse to people who were " protected," at the same 
time that it was unjust to that great mass of the population 
which, not being engaged in cotton manufactures, was not 
" protected," but had to pay, in higher prices for clothing, 
the cost of protection to a few. 

286. Take now another case, where an attempt was made 
to " protect " both the producers of a raw material and its 
manufacturers — of course once more at the expense of the 
great mass of the people, who are consumers. The wool- 
growers and the wool - manufacturers combined to appeal to 
Congress for " protection," and " encouragement for their 
home industries ;" and their demands were granted. Natu- 
rally both American wool and American woolen goods im- 
mediately rose in price — that was the object of the men who 
asked for the high duties. Woolen shirts, trousers, coats, 
blankets, carpets cost all of us more, in order that these two 
home industries might be favored. 

287. The exclusion of foreign wool and woolens caused, 
1st, a rapid and great increase in the production of American 
wool, and also in the price of mutton — for the farmers, sure 
of a high price for wool, would not sell so many sheep to the 



OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 95 

butchers as before. But mutton, too, is an article of univer- 
sal consumption. 2d. The high duty caused the establish- 
ment of a large number of woolen mills, with expensive 
machinery, to build and work which capital was drawn from 
other industries where it was before usefully employed. At 
the same time people were drawn from farms and other em- 
ployments into the woolen mills. Thus, as in New England 
in the previous case, industry was in a double way deranged. 

288. But hardly had all the wool-growers and woolen man- 
ufacturers got fairly to work when it was discovered that the 
exclusion of foreign-grown wool from so large a market as 
the United States had made it so cheap in Europe that manu- 
facturers there could still sell their goods here, after paying 
the high duty, in competition with ours in our own market. 
Then followed a demand for still higher duties on the foreign 
goods. 

289. But this additional protection for themselves enabled 
our manufacturers to import some foreign - grown wool ; 
whereupon the wool-growers began to clamor : they had 
greatly increased the product of wool — for sheep breed rapid- 
ly ; and as many had paid high prices for sheep, and for fine 
bucks, they did not like to lose the benefit of protection. 

290. But it was reasonably urged by manufacturers that to 
exclude foreign wools entirely was to confine our manufact- 
urers to making but few varieties of goods, and those not the 
most profitable, because for most kinds of goods the manu- 
facturer needs to mix in the looms the wools of different cli- 
mates and countries. Hence the exclusion of foreign wool, 
and an overstocked market in some kinds of goods, caused 
the stoppage of many factories, a general stagnation of the 
business — under the high duties, remember — consequent fall 
in the demand for American wool, and prostration of the 
protected wool-growers ; all to the advantage of only a few 
wealthy and cautious manufacturers, who happened to be 
able to take advantage of the low prices. 

291. Here was a loss to farmers, manufacturers, and opera- 
tives by "protection." Nor was this all. Machinery lives 



96 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

though men die. If it stands idle, it deteriorates ; new in 
ventions supersede it by and by ; and if it has stood idle, it 
has not earned the cost of replacement : hence actual loss of 
much capital. As to the workmen, drawn away from other 
and more healthful employments, and made more dependent 
than formerly, many were now turned adrift. 

292. To achieve these miserable results — to cause loss to 
the farmers as well as to the manufacturers and their laborers, 
to derange an important industry, and benefit only a few 
speculators who were ready to take advantage of the general 
loss — the whole American people were obliged by a partial 
and unjust law to pay during several years needlessly high 
prices for coats, trousers, blankets, carpets, flannels, and wool- 
en dresses. 

293. Take yet another example, differing from the fore- 
going — the manufacture of crude and rolled iron, which in- 
cludes pig and railroad and other bars. Laws placing a pen- 
alty on the use of foreign iron have existed on our statute- 
books for a great number of years ; they were adopted on 
the plea that we possessed rich ores and abundant coal and 
limestone ; and that we could not safely be dependent on 
foreign nations for so necessary an article as iron, because we 
might in such a case be very seriously inconvenienced in the 
case of war. I hope you are logician enough to see the fal- 
lacy in this proposition — it lies in the implication that with 
out a penalty on the use of foreign iron, and a consequent 
bounty to the home manufacturer, no American would have 
engaged in this industry. But if, as is most true, we have 
abundant supplies of excellent ores, fuel, and fluxes — that is 
to say, if Nature has put us into an uncommonly advanta- 
geous position for making iron, surely it is too much to say 
that we could not or would not use these natural advantages 
without an additional bounty from the government. 

294. The "protective" bounty, however, caused a rapid 
flow of capital and labor from various other industries to this 
crude pursuit — one of the lowest of all, the least elevating to 
those engaged in it, The capital and labor were diverted 



OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 



97 



from industries naturally more productive, and this of course 
put a serious loss upon the general community ; because thus 
less aggregate wealth was produced, and the means of ex- 
change w^ere lessened. But, further, the hope of extraordi- 
nary gains from protection — which promised the iron-master 
a monopoly of the home market — led men to rash ventures. 
Many placed their iron-furnaces badly, so that they labored 
under natural disadvantages, and needed protection, in fact, 
not from European iron-masters, but from their more judi- 
cious neighbors. I have been told by several iron-masters 
that the furnace of the late Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsyl- 
vania was thus ' misplaced, and that when he constantly ap- 
pealed for a higher duty on foreign iron, for more, and more, 
and more "protection," he spoke from his own experience, 
and for his own necessities, and not those of the judiciously 
placed furnaces. 

295. Another result of " protection" was that the protected 
iron-masters, even where the furnaces were well placed, often 
neglected to apply the most scientific methods in their work. 
They had become accustomed to depend on bounties and 
" protection " granted by the government, and no longer 
used their brains, as they must have done had they, like the 
shoemakers and blacksmiths and carpenters, the farmers, sew- 
ing-women, and the immense mass of unprotected laborers, 
been obliged to depend upon their own ingenuity. Mr. 
Abram Hewitt, of New Jersey, himself a prominent iron- 
master and zealous protectionist, in a Report on Iron at the 
last French Exhibition, reproached the American iron-masters 
for this neglect, and pointed out that at that time many of 
our works were conducted on methods long ago abandoned 
in Europe as uneconomical. In another case an American, 
visiting an English manufacturer of a specialty in woolen 
goods, discovered that, in spite of our high tariff, he continued 
to export his goods to the United States ; and asking curi- 
ously how it could be afforded, the Englishman replied by 
showing him that he had just put in an entire set of new and 
greatly improved machinery, and had sold his old and waste- 
9 E 



98 POLITICS FOR YOtfNG AMERICANS. 

ful machinery to a manufacturer in the United States — to 
his competitor, namely, who depended not on ingenuity or 
cheap means of production, but on " protection," and no 
doubt petitioned Congress for higher duties as soon as he had 
set up the Englishman's cast-off machines. Protection, you 
see, dulls ingenuity, because it destroys a market for it. If 
an American mechanic invents a machine for saving labor in 
a " protected " industry, he has the less chance to profit by 
its adoption, because the capitalists to whom he offers it de- 
pend less on economy or ingenuity than on the government's 
bounty or protection, taken out of the people's pockets. 

296. The object of a duty on foreign iron is, of course, to 
enable the American iron-master to charge a higher price for 
his product. This addition to the natural price of iron must 
be paid by the American people, for other nations will not 
pay it — they will prefer to buy in a cheaper market, and thus 
protection ruins our foreign commerce. But think for a min- 
ute what an addition to the price of iron means. It means 
that the carpenter shall pay more for his tools, the blacksmith 
for his horseshoes, the house-builder for his nails, the house- 
keeper for her pots and kettles, the farmer for his implements 
— it means that houses shall be dearer and house-rent higher ; 
that all agricultural operations shall cost more, wherefore 
bread must be higher ; that all machinery shall be more 
costly, and therefore all clothing and other necessaries of life 
produced by machinery shall be dearer to the poor ; and, final- 
ly, that railroads, which use enormous quantities of iron in 
rails, locomotives, and cars, shall be more costly, and therefore 
freights higher forever to the farmer, who wants to get his 
produce to market. 

297. That is to say, a duty on iron takes something out of 
the pocket of every man, woman, and child in the United 
States, and by that much lessens their comfort and prosperity ; 
and it does this, as you have seen, to make the fortunes of a 
comparatively small number of capitalists engaged in the pro- 
duction of iron, and to enable them, according to Mr. Hewitt, 
to work with wasteful means and processes. 



OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 99 

298. For the workmen do not benefit by the tariff, but only 
the capitalists. It is not pretended that the high duty obliges 
or causes the iron-masters to pay their laborers wages above 
the average standard of wages in the country : the protection- 
ists only claim that the high duty enables the payment of ivages 
in the protected industries equal to those paid in the unprotect- 
ed. But those now engaged in the furnaces and factories, 
where they are crowded together, and rendered less intelligent, 
less ingenious, less independent than the average of their coun- 
trymen, would, if there had been no iron-furnaces at all, have 
been engaged in other and more healthful occupations ; and 
they are thus injured by the protective duty, by being lured 
into the furnaces ; and in the end are left without employ- 
ment by a commercial crisis in their trade, caused by over- 
production, brought about entirely by the stimulant of bounty 
or " protection." The high duty on iron tempted capitalists 
by the prospect of extraordinary profits, and thus caused an 
unnaturally rapid expansion of this business ; with the result, 
sure from the first, of a general paralysis, involving loss of 
capital, which is an indirect but certain loss to the mass of 
iaborers ; but also, and directly, bringing suffering to the la- 
borers engaged in the production of iron, and to their families. 

299. You see, in these three instances, that — 1st. Protection 
diverts capital from numerous diversified and naturally pro- 
ductive into fewer and naturally less productive channels: 
which is an injury to the mass of the people, because it checks 
their enterprise and ingenuity. 2d. It diverts labor in the 
same measure — for labor follows capital ; and it places the 
laborer always in a more dependent and precarious situation. 
3d. It causes loss of capital, which is a serious injury to the 
country, for capital is accumulated wealth, and one of the 
most important tools for further increasing wealth. 4th. 
Finally, it is a means of deranging industry, and thus sudden- 
ly throwing great numbers of men out of employment. 5th. 
And it does all this injury in a most costly manner, by a trib- 
ute levied upon the whole population. 

300. I might exhibit to you many other examples of the 



100 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

folly and loss of "protection" — as the high duty on foreign 
salt, which, 1st, destroyed some part of our foreign commerce, 
where our ships were able to carry an outward cargo cheaply 
only on condition of bringing home salt from Liverpool or 
the West Indies ; and, 2d, actually enabled a combination of 
salt monopolists, two or three great companies, to close some 
of the more important of our own salt-works, and thus lessen 
the supply to the American people. I saw myself, a few 
years ago, the great West Virginia Salt-works standing idle, 
and when I asked the reason, was informed that the owners 
were hired by the Associated Salt -Producers to close their 
works {and of course to discharge all their workmen). This 
is called " Protection to Home Industry." 

301. Again, a high duty was laid on foreign lumber and 
timber; with the result, 1st, of breaking up an important 
trade in finished lumber which our merchants had established 
with Australia and the West Indies, but which was driven to 
Canada by the tariff which made lumber dear here ; 2d, mak- 
ing all houses dearer, and house-rents higher for the laboring 
men and their families ; and, 3d, causing the needless destruc- 
tion of our own forests, which we ought much rather to have 
preserved with great care, so long as our neighbors would sell 
us theirs. 

302. I hope it is plain to you that all obstacles to the ex- 
change of products are injurious ; and that as God allows and 
incites us to use our utmost ingenuity to lessen and overcome 
those natural obstacles which he has placed, so it is the most 
egregious folly in us to add artificial ones. In doing so; we 
inevitably sink capital or accumulated wealth, and expose the 
laboring part of the population to undue hazards, losses, and 
suffering*. 

303. Yet trades-unions and labor societies encourage this 
system, miscalled " protection," and thus show once more the 
folly which rules them, their ignorance of natural laws, and 
their unfitness to undertake the control of labor. 

304. For, bear in mind that — 1st. If there had never been 
an iron-furnace, a cotton or woolen mill, in the whole United 



OF DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. 101 

States, our population would still have been fully employed, 
and at good wages. For our country is but thinly populated, 
and with unobstructed production and exchange there will be 
for a century to come a dozen days' work for every man ready 
to labor a day. 2d. Without "protection" we might have 
had fewer cotton and woolen mills and iron-furnaces, but we 
should have had a far more diversified industry ; a more gen- 
eral and equal distribution of wealth ; more numerous oppor- 
tunities for enterprising men of small means to use their in- 
ventive skill in small businesses ; and hence greater independ- 
ence, and with this a higher average of general intelligence, 
thrift, and comfort than we have. 

305. Protection drew our capital and labor into undertak- 
ings which were not naturally profitable (for else there would 
have been no reason for protection) ; hence loss of capital or 
wealth — a lessening of the total amount of accumulated sav- 
ings in the nation. But, as I showed you under the head of 
Property, every loss of capital is an injury primarily to the 
mass of those -who labor for wages ; secondarily to the whole 
community. 

306. Moreover, protection, -by offering the special tempta- 
tion of a bounty to a few industries, and these of kinds in 
which the laborers are on the whole least benefited and made 
most helpless, exposes these industries to over-production, and 
thus causes commercial revulsions, stagnation in trade, and gen- 
eral loss, with particular suffering to the laborers in the protect- 
ed industries, who are at such times thrown out of employment ; 
and a general derangement of wages in all employments. 

307. I have told you before that no merely selfish policy 
can in the long run prosper. God did not make the world so. 
Unselfishness is as much a natural law as the law of gravita- 
tion ; and he who seeks to benefit himself by injuring others 
strives against nature, and though he may succeed in his direct 
purpose, is sure in some other way to sustain greater injury. 
And what is thus true of individuals is still more true of na- 
tions, which, as their life extends beyond that of individuals, 
are very certain to reap as they sow. 



102 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 



XXVIII 

OF STRIKES. 

308. When laborers for wages make a demand upon their 
employer, accompanied with a threat that if he refuses they 
will leave him, they are said to " strike." 

309. Of course, every workman has a right to make his own 
terms with his employer ; and it can make no difference — so 
far as right goes — whether he acts singly or whether he joins 
a number, great or small, of his fellow-laborers in arranging 
or rearranging these terms. All laws having for their object 
the prevention of such combinations and strikes are therefore 
unjust and oppressive. Every man has an inalienable right to 
seek to better his condition, and the means he uses for that 
end lie within his discretion, saving only, of course, that he 
must keep the peace. As a workman has no defense against 
an oppressive employer except the threat to leave him, it is the 
extreme of injustice to deprive him of that. 

310. His strike may bring loss and inconvenience not only 
upon his employer, but upon the general community : that 
does not lessen his right to strike, or to combine with others 
in a strike. It may be unwise, and bring suffering upon him 
and his associates and their families : that, too, does not im- 
pair his right. In short, when a laborer strikes, he exercises 
only the liberty of deciding to whom and on what terms he will 
give his labor ; and to interfere with that right would be to 
take away his freedom and make him a slave. 

311. But the rights he has and uses he must allow to oth- 
ers ; and the striker has no right to coerce any other working- 
man to join him : when be does that, he becomes a criminal 
of a very grave kind, for his wrong affects the rights of all 
working-men. If it were granted that a striker might right- 
fully force another workman to join him, he would thereby 



OF STRIKES. 103 

give up his own rights and liberties ; for clearly, if he may 
abridge the freedom of another, somebody else, by the same 
right, may lessen his. If you have a right to force me not to 
work, another may by the same right force you to work. 
The striker therefore commits the grossest and most absurd 
tyranny when he interferes to force some other man to cease 
work. We see such attempts made in this country occasion- 
ally, but usually only by the most ignorant of our laborers; 
every interference of the kind ought to be severely and sternly 
punished, as a dangerous attack upon society. 

312. In our times strikes usually take place upon a great 
scale. The organization of trades-unions has brought hired 
laborers into close connection, and enabled them to act in 
large masses for various purposes. Hence we have seen, in 
this country, strikes in which thousands of men were united ; 
and in England, where the trades-unions are more powerful 
and compact organizations than here, it has happened that a 
general strike of the laborers in one industry was supported 
by those engaged in others, out of a general fund of their so- 
cieties. In all this the workmen were exercising only the in- 
alienable right of determining for whom and on what terms 
they would labor; and so long as they did not attempt to 
force unwilling laborers to join them, and did not otherwise 
break the peace, interference with them would have been the 
grossest injustice. 

313. Whether strikes have or have not on the whole bene- 
fited the workmen is a question on which political economists 
differ, and which it is not easy to decide upon facts. My own 
belief is that strikes, as they are conducted, have done no last- 
ing good to the strikers or to the mass of laborers, but, on 
the contrary, have injured them. Take, for instance, an in- 
dustry which yields direct employment to ten thousand men ; 
and suppose them to unite in a strike : while they stand out, 
they are not only consuming their savings — or those of other 
workmen who support them — and are thus the poorer; but 
also they are idle, and are tempted to form bad habits. Idle- 
ness itself is a very bad habit. If they succeed, the increased 



104 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

rate of wages which they have compelled will not probably 
for a long time to come restore to them their former savings 
and comforts. Meantime, however, it is probable that other 
persons have been drawn into their industry, and thus by their 
own act the number of persons seeking their bread by this in- 
dustry has been increased, and in the nature of things the de- 
mand for wages is greater, proportioned to the capital available 
for wages, than before ; and either wages will presently fall 
again, or some part of the laborers will be thrown out of em- 
ployment. 

314. Trades-unions have apparently sought to prevent this 
natural consequence by arbitrary and tyrannical regulations 
concerning the employment of apprentices and of non-union- 
ists ; and by attempts to shorten the hours of labor, which is 
of course only an indirect way of increasing the rate of wages. 
Also they have endeavored to "make work" by forbidding 
men to do more than a certain amount of work in a given 
time. All these are deplorably rude and temporary expedi- 
ents, the contrivance of men ignorant of natural laws, and, 
what is even more mischievous, flying in the face of the golden 
rule. To forbid a boy to learn a trade which he desires, to 
prohibit the employment of non-unionists, are acts of pure 
selfishness ; and the whole spirit of the trades-unions in this 
matter is one which seeks to monopolize benefits at the ex- 
pense of other men. But, as I told you before, nothing is 
truer, or more plainly proved by the whole experience of so- 
ciety, than that no merely selfish policy can achieve a great or 
lasting success. God did not make the world so. 

315. When wages are permanently too low in any well- 
established industry, that means that too many persons are 
seeking to share in the gross returns of that industry. The 
remedy lies in either increasing the demand for the goods, 
which means widening the market for them, which can be 
done only by an extension of commerce, when more capital 
could be profitably invested in the industry ; or in decreasing 
the number of persons desiring employment in it. Now a 
strike certainly does not widen the market for goods ; it does 



OF TRADES-UNIONS. 105 

not extend commerce, which is the only way to permanently 
increase demand ; and, by alarming capital, is far more likely 
to decrease than to increase the proportion used in the given 
industry ; and by stopping work it checks the accumulation 
of that which is already invested. But it does not decrease 
the amount of labor offering — for the strikers simply stand T 
idle, and mean to re-enter the same industry as soon as the 
contest between them and their employers is decided ; as 
soon, that is to say, as one side or the other has suffered all 
the loss it can bear. I can not see, therefore, how the con- 
ditions are changed by the strike — except for the w^orse ; and 
a strike of this kind can, I imagine, permanently increase the 
prosperity of the workmen just about as much as a man can 
lift himself from the ground by a vigorous tug at his coat- 
collar. 



XXIX. 

OF TRADES-UNIONS. 



316. The theory taught by the trades-union leaders is that 
in striking the laborers demand only a share of the profits of 
the capitalists who are their employers. Thus they persuade 
the working-people that " capital," as they say, is the enemy 
of " labor," and that " labor " can prosper only by depriving 
" capital " of some share of its profits : that one man can 
gain only by another's loss. 

317. You will ask, perhaps, whether it is not true that the 
owners of capital do seek to increase their profits, even at the 
expense of their hired laborers ; and whether, therefore, there 
is not a natural antagonism, not between capital and labor, 
but between the employer and his hired work-people ? 

318. Undoubtedly both . employer and employed seek their 
own benefit ; and where the employer has the working-men 
in his power he will seek to increase his profits by lessening 
their remuneration. This, however, can happen only where 
the laborers are slaves, and where the master therefore has a 

E 2 






106 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

monopoly of their services. Where the workmen are free 
and moderately intelligent, and competition in business is unob- 
structed, if capital makes abnormal gains, other capital at once 
rushes in to partake of these ; if wages are above the average, 
other laborers rush in to share the higher rates ; and in either 
case profits or wages, as the case may be, fall to a general 
average. 

319. Now a trades-union seeks to prevent this natural fall 
of wages by restricting the taking of apprentices and the em- 
ployment of non-unionists; that is to say, by, so far as its 
members can, making a close corporation or monopoly of the 
trade. But suppose the capitalists should in their turn try 
to prevent the extension of the industry by combining to pre- 
vent fresh capital flowing into it? The one course would be 
as reasonable, as logical, and as vain as the other. 

320. When wages in any industry fall to a point too low 
to afford the laborers en paired in it a comfortable subsistence, 
and with prudence and economy a small surplus, that is a 
proof that labor presses too severely upon the capital which 
can be profitably employed in that industry. Suppose now 
ten thousand persons employed in such an industry, and all 
enrolled in the trades-union. Their present course would be 
to strike. Their true course would be to use the fund which 
every trades-union accumulates, to send surplus members to a 
region where labor is better rewarded : that is to say, to re-es- 
tablish the disturbed equilibrium. 

321. There are no surplus men in the world : when 
any one appears to be so, he is only in the wrong place. En- 
able him to go elsewhere, and teach him that he shall if need 
be do some thing else, and he is no longer surplus, but highly 
necessary to civilization. More than one half of our planet 
still lies waste and useless, and suffers for lack of strong arms 
and stout hearts to redeem it. 

322. And here I come to one of the most mischievous blun- 
ders of the trades-unions. They teach, if not directly, yet by 
the spirit of their doctrines, that men have a vested right 
in their employments : that a mason has a right to re- 



OF TRADES-UNIONS. 107 

main a mason, and that society owes him a living by that 
trade. I wish particularly to warn you against this error. 
No man has the least right to subsistence as merely a mason, 
or a shoemaker, a lawyer, a clergyman, a tailor, a bricklayer, 
or a miner. If his labor as a mason is surplus, if no more 
masons are wanted when he comes along with his trowel, it is 
his duty, not to conspire against society with absurd regula- 
tions about apprentices and hours of labor, but to go at some- 
thing else, A man who regards himself as only a shoemaker, 
a mason, a tailor, a lawyer, a physician, or a clerk, becomes 
thereby a contemptible object. He loses his independence, 
and makes himself the sport of circumstances. In our days, 
when new inventions continually change the methods of 
labor, it is especially hazardous for men to bind themselves 
for life to a single employment ; and those only can hope to 
benefit both themselves and their fellow-laborers who, when 
they find their occupation overcrowded, have courage and in- 
dependence enough to seek a new calling, and if possible a 
new field of labor. 

323. Trades-unions and labor societies arise out of a per 
fectly just feeling, among hired laborers, that they are less 
comfortable than they wish to be. Education has, in all 
civilized countries, given to the great class of laborers for 
wages the taste and desire for a greater amount of comfort 
than contented them in other days. But the means they 
take to obtain their desires are, as I have tried to show you, 
mostly crude and in violation of natural laws. 

324. Trades-unions should use their means to seek out new 
fields of labor ; to teach their members energetically that 
though to-day they may be shoemakers, they can, if need be, 
achieve success as shepherds, gold-miners, farmers ; that de- 
pendence is hateful ; that independence is possible to all who 
have health and will ; and that migration is the duty of the 
strongest 



108 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 






XXX. 

THE MALTHUSIAN THEORY. 

325. When you come to read more elaborate works of 
Political Economy than this, you will perceive that some of 
the ablest writers on this subject speak of the desirableness 
of placing a check upon the increase of population. Mr. Mill, 
indeed, and those who follow him, hold that such a check is 
absolutely necessary ; and that population should bear a 
"gradually diminishing ratio to capital and employment;" 
and he urges it as a duty upon the laboring class to post- 
pone marriage, and bring fewer children into the world. 

32G. The Rev. Mr. Malthus, an English clergyman, present- 
ed to the world, in the year 1798, a lamentable and alarming 
picture of what must happen if men continued to increase 
upon the earth, while land could not increase. He believed 
that the best and most fertile soils were first occupied ; that 
as population increased, the best soils lost some of their fer- 
tility, and the poorest came into use ; and thus, naturally and 
inevitably — supposing him to be right — the more mouths, 
the less food ; and we should by and by be involved in a 
general and disgusting scramble for dinner, in which, of 
course, the weakest would starve. Upon this theory Mill 
and other writers, whom you will by and by read, base their 
appeal for a decrease of population. 

327. But it will strike you, if you reflect upon the matter, 
that, first, as it is not possible by law to prevent men from 
marrying and breeding children ; and as, according .to Mill 
and others, abstinence from the solace of the family life is 
to be expected only of the most thoughtful and prudent — in 
which they are right, of course — the result would be degen- 
eration of a people, who, acting under such a belief, would 
in fact breed mainly from the lowest part of the race. Thus 



THE MALTHUSIAN THEORT. 109 

a nation which embraced these views would presently find an 
increase of the ignorant and improvident, and a decrease of 
the wise and good : in seeking to make population stationary, 
it would breed out the brains. 

328. But, secondly, it is not true that the most fertile lands 
are the first taken up. On the contrary, in the first settle- 
ment of a country the poorest lands are taken up, and are used 
in the least productive w^ay — for grazing mainly. Later, as 
population presses, agriculture is begun, but in a wasteful 
manner, and still not on the best lands ; and it is not until 
both capital and labor are abundant that men begin to re- 
deem the soils naturally most fertile, namely, the swamps and 
overflowed lands. This, which I think Mr. Henry C. Carey, 
of Philadelphia, was the first to demonstrate, you may see in 
all parts of our own country. Nor is this all : as population 
presses upon the supply of food, the arts of agriculture are 
improved ; manures are saved ; old lands are redeemed ; and 
all parts of the soil are made to bear larger crops. 

329. The trades-unions and other labor societies appear to 
have accepted the dolorous view upon this subject which 
some Political Economists have presented to them, and are 
acting upon it. If it is true that a general scramble for food 
is imminent, they are perhaps right in seeking to protect 
themselves, by forming their trades into close corporations ; 
by keeping out new members ; by seeking to do as little 
work, and get as high pay as arbitrary regulations promise 
them. 

330. But the most fertile part of our planet still lies unim- 
proved, and in the possession of savages. When Mr. Malthus 
wrote, the whole great continent of Australia lay unoccupied r 
now it supports already some millions of English-speaking 
people, and adds yearly and enormously to the food and cloth- 
ing supply of the world. When Mr. Mill began to write, Cali- 
fornia was occupied only by cattle, and a few Mexican fami- 
lies who slew these for their hides alone : now that great 
state exports wheat and w r ool and wine in immense quantities. 
Texas, as large and as fertile as France, is almost empty. South 



110 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

America alone would support in comfort a population greater 
than that of Europe and the United States together. Oce- 
ania, New Guinea, and many parts of Africa, now possessed 
by savages, are ready to receive and support an energetic 
and thrifty population. 

331. The world lies open in these days, when steamships 
and fire-arms make migration safe — and migration is one of 
the great remedies for the grievances of labor. Hence the 
importance of the trades-unions : if only they would turn 
from their strife against natural laws, and make themselves 
the instruments of a vast and well-organized scheme for found- 
ing colonies or even new nations. 



XXXI. 

OF PROHIBITORY LAWS, SO CALLED. 

332. Benevolent and philanthropic men, unless they are 
also wise, which is not always the case, are fond of trying to 
make men virtuous by act of Legislature. Long experience 
has shown, however, that purely social evils or excesses, or 
even prejudices, where these last are based on differences of 
race or color, can not be cured by laws. 

333. The intemperate use of spirituous liquors is one of 
the greatest curses to which modern society is exposed ; it 
is the cause of at least three quarters of the vice, crime, pov- 
erty, pauperism, and misery to be found in our country. If 
you were to cut from the newspapers all the reports of mur- 
ders and attempts to murder during a year, you would find 
that at least three out of four arose out of the misuse of 
spirituous liquors. If you trace to its source any case of 
crime, poverty, or extreme misery you may meet, the chances 
are at least four to one that you will find " Rum did it." If 
we could prevent the misuse of spirituous liquors, we should 
save at least one half of the taxes collected by states, cities, 
and counties, and very appreciably raise the average of com- 



Ill 

fort and prosperity among the people. The gravity of the 
evil is so generally recognized that the word " Intemperance " 
has come to have a narrow application in the public mind, 
being used generally to signify the misuse of alcoholic drinks ; 
though men may be and constantly are intemperate in many 
other things, as in eating, in the strife after wealth or social 
or political distinction, or in their use of cards and other 
means of amusement; and I have known boys who were in- 
temperate in eating candy and gingerbread, in the use of fire- 
crackers on the Fourth of July, or in novel-reading. 

334. When a boy manifests a morbid and depraved desire 
for candy, judicious parents deny him this indulgence — but 
they do not necessarily deprive all his brothers and sisters 
who have no such morbid craving. So when a man has con- 
tracted a passion for gambling, he does well to avoid the use 
of cards entirely ; but it does not follow, because some men 
intemperately waste their means in poker-playing, that all 
elderly ladies and gentlemen should be forbidden a harmless 
and pleasant game of whist. 

335. In many of our states, however, philanthropic persons 
demand what is called a Prohibitory Liquor Law — a law en- 
tirely forbidding the sale and use of spirituous liquors ; and 
they demand this because they believe it is the only way to 
extirpate the vice of intemperance. 

336. Law-makers, in order that their labors may be effective 
and useful, are bound to bear in mind the passions and natural 
tastes of mankind. Not every wrong or evil can be cured by 
law ; and there are matters which the wise law-maker leaves 
unnoticed on the statute-books. 

337. Further, it is important for you to know that any law 
is unwise which has not the general favor of the community to 
which it is to be applied ; for if a law has not this general 
countenance and support in public opinion, it can not be en- 
forced in a free state. It is only a despotic ruler who can, by 
force of arms, terrify and compel his subjects into a change 
of their habits. Hence such a law as that lately before Con- 
gress, and wrongly called a " Civil Rights bill," is most un- 



112 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

wise, because it offends the long-existing and bitter prejudices 
of a very large part of the community, and, besides, attempts 
to obtain for the colored people what it is not the province 
of law to secure for any one, namely, social equality : the 
right by law to force themselves into the society of persons 
who do not like them. A law compelling all hotel-keepers to 
receive colored men as guests favors the colored men at the 
expense of the whites — for it leaves to the latter no hotel 
to which they can resort without offense to their feelings, 
These feelings may be foolish or wrong; but they exist — and 
they are so strong and bitter that they can not be removed 
by laws. Time, in such a ease, is better than laws. The 
Civil Rights bill, in fact, comes under the head of Prohib- 
itory haws, which we arc considering. 

338. In legislating upon the use of spirituous liquors, a 
wise law-maker would remember that the craving for stimu- 
lants is universal among mankind ; that spirituous liquors 
and wines are of important use in diseases, and when moder- 
ately used are doubtless of service in preventing some dis- 
eases ; that the right of a man to decide whether or not he 
needs a stimulant can not be declared by any general law, be- 
cause each case must necessarily be judged upon its own 
features, and it must therefore practically be left to himself ; 
that it is not a function of law to prevent a man injuring 
himself — else the government would have to interfere in 
every act of our lives : but only to prevent him from injuring 
others ; and that, finally, a law prohibiting the sale and use 
of an article in universal demand can not be carried into ef- 
fect without vexatious and justly hateful searches in private 
houses and interference with individual desires and tastes. 
To a wise law-maker, therefore, greatly as he might be im- 
pressed with the evils arising to society out of the misuse 
of spirituous liquors, a general law totally prohibiting their 
use and sale within a state, or the United States, would seem 
inexpedient, because it could not be enforced, and, if it could 
be, would involve an unjust and vexatious interference with 
individual rights. 



113 

339. Prohibitory liquor laws are thus unwise, and their 
adoption ought to be opposed because they are directed not 
against the abuse, but against the use of an article. But 
society has a right to seek, by judicious regulations, to pro- 
tect itself against the results of the misuse of liquors. It has 
a right to exact of the retail liquor-seller a tax or penalty for 
the privilege of pursuing his injurious calling, and to establish 
and enforce severe penalties for selling without such permit 
or license. It may rightly levy a fine upon the liquor-seller 
in whose house a drunken man is found ; and put a' penalty 
upon habitual drunkenness — which might very justly be hard, 
labor for the benefit of his family. Also the community 
may refuse entirely to license bar-rooms or other places for 
the sale of liquor at retail and its consumption on the prem- 
ises. Moreover, it would be eminently just to devote the 
proceeds of liquor-licenses to the support of the hospitals, 
poor-houses, orphan asylums, jails, and penitentiaries which 
the misuse of strong drink does so much to fill ; and the 
necessities of these charitable and penal institutions might be 
made, in any state or county, the measure of the license fees 
which should be exacted from liquor-sellers, instead of fixing 
a mere arbitrary sum. In this way, at least those who keep 
and frequent tippling-houses would be obliged to make up to 
the community some part of the money-loss inflicted upon it 
by their vice. 

340. In the vain attempt to prohibit the use of intoxicating 
liquors^ the temperance people have neglected many practical 
measures for lessening the misuse — which is all they have any 
business with. It is But recently, for instance, that they have 
awakened to the great advantage of empowering small com- 
munities, townships, or even school-districts, and wards in 
cities, to decide, by a vote of the inhabitants, the question 
whether retail liquor-licenses shall be granted or denied with- 
in their bounds. This is called " local option," and I will 
proceed to explain to you its uses. 

8 



114 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 



XXXII. 

OF " LOCAL OPTION: 1 

341. " Local option M is an application of the principle of 
Decentralization, which I explained to you in Section VIII. 

342. In our political system, as you have read, some things 
are assigned to the Federal Government, some to the state 
government, and some by this to the county, city, and town- 
ship governments. Of late, it has been seen by wise men 
that some matters which have been usually left to the state, 
or to the counties and cities, might advantageously be as- 
signed to the smaller political subdivisions. 

343. For instance, a compulsory school law is found to be 
very difficult of enforcement over a whole state. In some 
parts public opinion would readily sustain such a law ; in 
others it is opposed, and where this is the case such a law 
is likely to be a dead letter. Again, a law refusing liquor- 
licenses would be sustained by public sentiment in some 
localities, but would be openly violated in others, where the 
public opinion was decidedly hostile to it. 

344. If, now, instead of adopting one rule for all the people 
of a state, the Legislature should empower every township, 
city-ward, or school-district to declare by a vote of its* citizens, 
to be taken once a year, that within the limits of such a sub- 
division licenses should be granted, or refused, it is evident 
that, as each of these small subdivisions would decide for 
itself, its inhabitants would be directly thrown upon their 
responsibility. If the majority wished tippling-shops, they 
would vote for licensing them ; if they wished to extirpate 
them, they would vote to refuse licenses ; but it would be cer- 
tain that public sentiment would enforce the law. Moreover, 
by such an expedient the friends of temperance would be 
able to raise the question once a year, to bring it prominently 



OF CORPORATIONS. 115 

before the people in each locality, and to show the people, by 
statistics and facts, the economical advantages of temperance. 
This course has been pursued for a number of years in the 
township of Vineland, in New Jersey, and the people annu- 
ally vote to refuse all licenses to sell liquor. They have 
found, as the result of their firmness, that crime and pauper- 
ism are almost entirely banished from their town. 

345. The expedient of local option can be usefully extended 
to other measures of policy ; and if this is done, it will, by 
and by, bring us back to the town-meeting system of New 
England, which I described to you in Section XV., and thus 
one of the most important political reforms possible in our 
system would be brought about ; for thus the people of a 
small locality, in public meeting assembled, would once more 
discuss their local affairs, and vote directly upon the policy 
they wish to pursue and the money they are willing to spend 
for public purposes. 



XXXIII. 

OF CORPORATIONS. 



346. A Corporation is an association of persons united to 
promote a common purpose, either of morals, pleasure, or 
business. Thus a church, a library association, a college, a 
Masonic or other benevolent society, an insurance or railroad 
or telegraph company, is a corporation. 

347. Corporations are called in law " artificial persons," 
which means that they have no natural existence, but are the 
creatures of law. It is commonly said of them that they 
" have neither bodies to be kicked nor souls to be damned," 
which means that they are not amenable to the usual penalties 
for misconduct. It is, therefore, necessary and proper to 
limit strictly their powers and privileges, to impose severe 
penalties for their misconduct, and to enable the public to 
hold them quickly and easily to account in the courts. Leg- 



116 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

islative bodies, whose first duty is to protect the rights of the 
people, may justly regard corporations with suspicion, and 
scrutinize with great care all grants of power to such bodies. 

348. But the right of free association for business and 
other purposes is of so great importance that it ought not to 
be unduly hampered. All persons in a state ought to have 
equal rights to form corporations, under general laws, carefully 
drawn ; and it ought never to be necessary to go to a legisla- 
tive body for a special charter, or instrument creating a cor- 
poration. General laws should equally limit and define their 
powers and privileges, and impose equal penalties for miscon- 
duct. Thus a general railroad law should stand on the stat- 
ute-book, subject to which any body of men within the state 
might form themselves into a railroad company ; and the 
same is true of telegraphs, steamships, library societies, 
churches, etc. Thus monopolies would be prevented, and a 
fruitful source of corruption in legislative bodies removed. 
For where special charters are granted, it is a common occur- 
rence to see rival companies struggling against each other be- 
fore legislative committees, and using bribery to gain their 
ends or defeat their opponents. 

349. AYliile the rights and powers of corporations ought 
to be rigorously defined and limited, those which are granted 
them are as sacred as any personal rights, and ought to be as 
secure against attack. A corporation, when it does wrong, or 
exceeds its powers, is amenable to the courts ; to drag it be- 
fore a Legislature or Congress, for what is called " Investiga- 
tion," is not only unjust, but tends invariably to the corruption 
of the legislative body. For the corporation will defend it- 
self ; and, being a creature without a soul, whose members feel 
no personal or moral responsibility for the corporate acts, it is 
very likely to be unscrupulous in self-defense if it is attacked 
in an unjust way. 

350. As corporations have unusual powers, and are often in 
the nature of monopolies, the governments which create them 
may rightly require of them reports of their operations at 
regular and fixed intervals ; and provide penalties for failure 



OF CONFEDERATION AND UNION. 117 

to report regularly or correctly, as well as for violation of the 
law under which they exist. In this way accurate informa- 
tion concerning them is made accessible to the public. With 
the help of such information, and with unrestricted liberty to 
form new corporations, subject to equal and general laws, re- 
strictions, and penalties, monopolies may and will be kept in 
order. It depends, however, upon the vigilance of the people 
to do this ; for corporations, like governments, are always 
ready to presume upon the ignorance and carelessness of the 
people. 



XXXIY. 

OF CONFEDERATION AND UNION. 

351. You already know from history that our country was 
first settled mainly by English people, who were formed into 
different colonies, subject to the British crown. The English 
eventually acquired all the settled parts of our Atlantic sea- 
board. 

352. The management of colonies by all the European gov- 
ernments was, at that time, conceived in the most narrow and 
selfish spirit. A colony was held, by the ablest statesmen of 
the last century, to be rightly treated as a dependency whose 
inhabitants were to enrich only the government whose flag 
they served, and the nation from which they were derived; 
and the people of a colony were therefore forbidden to trade 
with foreign nations, and even to manufacture for themselves 
many articles which were produced in the mother country. 

353. The British Navigation Act closed the North American 
ports to all but English ships, forbade any but English sub- 
jects to engage in foreign trade, and prohibited the exporta- 
tion of sugar, tobacco, cotton, wool, and other products of the 
colonies, to any country but England. Also the English 
colonists were forbidden to establish manufactures of several 
kinds, because it was held that they would thus injure the in- 
dustries of England. 



118 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

354. It was tins interference with the right to produce 
what they pleased, and to freely exchange their products 
where they could do so most advantageously, which began 
that alienation from England which ended in the Revolution- 
ary War and the independence of the colonies. The greater 
part of the wrongs set forth in the Declaration of Independ- 
ence grew out of the efforts of the English government to 
confine the commerce of the colonies to the mother country ; 
out of the determination of the Americans freely to produce 
what they pleased, and freely to exchange their products 
wherever it was to their advantage to do so. I call your at- 
tention to this fact, in order that you may see the extreme 
importance which civilized men attach to these rights. 

355. At the close of the Revolutionary War the colonies, 
which had become states, formed themselves into a Confedera- 
tion ; but, jealous of their separate independence, and fearful 
of a new master, the states, in the Articles of Confederation, 
reserved, each to itself, almost all the powers of government. 

356. The government of the Confederation had no presi- 
dent or other executive ; it had no power over individuals, 
either to tax, to coerce, or to punish them. It consisted of a 
Congress of delegates elected by the state Legislatures, and 
upon this Congress were devolved certain duties, which, how- 
ever, it had no power to perform. All its determinations 
were to be carried into effect by the states, whom, however, 
it had no power to coerce. 

357. The states, under the Confederation, reserved to them- 
selves the power of the purse. The Congress could declare 
the amount of revenue needed to carry on the general govern- 
ment, but the taxes were laid and collected by the states, ac- 
cording to a general apportionment, and when, as sometimes 
happened, some states did not pay in their quota, the Con- 
gress had no power to enforce its payment. The Congress 
had authority to declare war, but it could not raise a single 
soldier : that was reserved to the states. The Congress was 
made an arbitrator between the states : but it was powerless 
to enforce its decisions. Finally, the states, which alone 



OF CONFEDERATION AND UNION. 119 

could levy taxes, reserved to themselves the regulation of 
commerce, and the right to tax the exchange of products, not 
only those coming from abroad, but also those which were 
sent from one state into another ; and it was not long before 
high and vexatious duties were exacted, for the " encourage- 
ment of home industry," on the importation of goods from 
one state into another, which led, naturally, to retaliatory 
laws, and presently to such obstruction of the exchange of 
products as caused a general prostration of all industries in 
all the states. Production was discouraged, because markets 
were limited ; at every state boundary custom-house officers 
stood to exact tribute of the man who had something to ex- 
change ; and as the profitableness of industry depends on the 
right to exchange, and is diminished by every check placed 
upon the freedom of exchange, and by every limitation of the 
area over which a product may be exchanged, production was 
fatally hampered, and the whole country fell into poverty. 

358. The first movement toward our present form of gov- 
ernment arose out of a convention called to remove some un- 
endurably vexatious fetters upon the exchange of products. 
Commissioners were appointed by the Legislatures of Mary- 
land and Virginia to make freer to the people of those states 
the navigation of the Eivers Potomac and Roanoke, and the 
Chesapeake Bay. They were unable to act effectively ; and 
at their instance the Legislature of Virginia, in 1786, pro- 
posed a convention of commissioners from all the states, " to 
take into consideration the state of trade, and the propriety 
of a uniform system of commercial relations." These com- 
missioners advised a convention to revise the Articles of Con- 
federation, and it was this body which in 1787 framed our 
present Constitution. 

359. Once more you see the extreme importance to the 
prosperity of industry of freedom of exchange. Our Con- 
stitution grew out of the necessity of freeing the exchange of 
products from the fetters imposed upon it by the states ; and, 
accordingly, those who framed it took care to secure in the 
most effectual manner this great object, 



/20 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

360. The Constitution differs in but two fundamental par^ 
ticulars from the Articles of Confederation : it gives the Cen- 
tral Government direct power over individuals ; and it estab- 
lishes absolute freedom of exchange between all the states, 
and leaves the regulation of foreign commerce, which was 
and is still regarded as a source of revenue, exclusively in 
the hands of the Federal Government. All other changes 
were mere incidents arising naturally out of these two. For 
with power to levy taxes and to punish individuals came the 
necessity for an executive and a judicial branch of the govern- 
ment. As to other matters: the government of the Con- 
federation, like that which took its place, was charged with 
the declaration of war and peace, the maintenance of post- 
roads, the regulation of the coinage, the maintenance of em- 
bassadors abroad, etc., etc., just as our Federal Government 
is — only it had no power to cause any thing to be actually 
done, because it had no power to coerce individuals, to en- 
force its acts by courts or soldiers, or to raise a revenue. 

361. The adoption of the Constitution, by freeing the ex- 
change of products among the states, at once revived indus- 
try, by vastly enlarging the market for all products. When 
men could once more sell without obstruction what they had 
raised and produced, every energy was stimulated which be- 
fore was crushed, and we began thus, by the removal of ob- 
structions to exchange, that career of prosperity and growth 
which has been the wonder of the world. 

362. The union of the states under a Central or Federal 
Government has thus been the direct cause of all our long 
and remarkable career of prosperity, and this because, first, 
it has secured to our people, within certain limits, unrestricted 
freedom of exchange, which has acted as a constant stimulant 
to their enterprise, ingenuity, and industry. It has set a 
prize on intelligence by securing its products an immense 
market, covering the greater and the richest part of the con- 
tinent. Second, the Constitution assured homogeneous laws 
and free intercommunication over the whole of our territory, 
and thus made migration possible and safe, whereby new 



THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM. 121 

fields of activity are constantly opened to the thrifty poor 
and to the restless and adventurous of our population. 

363. Finally, the self-government in local affairs reserved to 
the states has enabled these to experiment safely, and to make 
changes in the state constitutions, not always for the best, but 
often needed improvements, and thus, by comparing results, 
to gradually and safely improve our system of government. 



XXXV. 

THE AMEBIC AN POLITICAL SYSTEM. 

364. Appended to this volume you will find the Federal 
Constitution, which I advise you to read with care. 

365. You will discover that this instrument creates a gov- 
ernment of limited powers, but of unlimited authority within 
its province. For instance, the President of the United States 
can not appoint any state officer, nor issue a command to him 
— not even a justice of the peace or a constable in a township ; 
but he may draft or compel half a million of citizens into the 
army in case of war. Congress may declare war, and levy 
taxes to carry it on ; it may declare who are citizens, how 
much gold shall go to a dollar, and how many pounds of 
wheat to a bushel ; but it can not enact or repeal a city 
charter, nor interfere in the acts of even a township's trus- 
tees. 

366. This limitation and division of powers we call Decen- 
tralization. You have read of it in Section VIII. ; and its 
practical application is one of the most important and bene- 
ficial features of our political system. 

367. Under it, you must remember, the Federal Govern- 
ment has absolute command and power over every citizen and 
his property, for certain purposes and in certain relations ; and 
this is necessary to give it efficiency.. But it is absolutely 
without power over the citizens in other relations, and this is 
necessary to secure our liberties, and to give elasticity to our 

F 



122 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

political system ; which means to make change possible with- 
out revolution. 

368. The people of the United States are a nation ; the 
Federal Government is a national government in the truest 
and largest sense of the word ; and the Constitution empowers 
it to do all that any nation can require of its government, and 
to act in the most direct and decisive manner upon the in- 
dividual citizen. 

369. The Federal Government has the exclusive charge of 
our intercourse, as a nation, with other nations ; and it alone 
can make treaties. If you travel abroad, your citizenship is 
declared by a Federal passport; your rights are defended by 
the Federal Government ; you are known as a citizen, not of 
New Jersey or California, but of the United States ; the flag 
of your country is the Federal flag ; and foreign governments 
have not even any official knowledge of the existence of our 
states. 

370. The Federal Government has the exclusive authority 
to make treaties, to declare war and peace, to raise armies and 
maintain a navy ; and though the militia in time of peace are 
trained by* the states, it must be according to rules adopted by 
the Federal Congress. It has the entire charge of the common 
defense against attack from other nations, and has the power 
to defend its own existence against rebellion, and make its own 
laws obeyed by all the citizens — all state constitutions and 
laws to the contrary notwithstanding — as was shown in the 
late war. It is empowered to raise revenue by internal as well 
as external taxes, and, if necessary, to borrow money for these 
and many other purposes. Its tax-collectors and other officers 
proceed directly against the individual citizen, and in its own 
courts. It has the exclusive authority to establish and main- 
tain post-offices, to coin money and punish counterfeiters ; to 
fix weights and measures, to regulate commerce, to take cog- 
nizance of offenses committed at sea, in the territories, and 
against the laws of nations ; to enact bankrupt-laws, to declare 
who shall be citizens, and to grant patents and copyrights. 
In all these matters the state governments have absolutely no 



THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM. 123 

authority; and all laws enacted by Congress, for these and 
other purposes recited in the Constitution, are the supreme 
law of the land, and as such entitled to your faithful obedi- 
ence, even though a state constitution or laws should command 
you to the contrary. For, an act of Congress, a decision of 
the United States Supreme Court, or a command of the Pres- 
ident when this is in accordance with an act of Congress, is 
above any or all state laws and constitutions. The states are 
so completely prohibited from interfering with the Federal 
Government in its own field, as this is prescribed in the Con- 
stitution, that they can not even tax Federal bonds ; and the 
Federal power is so supreme, within its limits, that it may 
punish even so small an offense as the obstruction of one of 
its mail wagons. 

371. It may be well to explain to you here, also, that when 
a citizen disobeys a Federal law he is directly dealt with — ar- 
rested, tried, and punished — by Federal officers and courts ; 
but when a state adopts an unconstitutional law, the citizen 
called on to obey it appeals to the Federal Supreme Court, 
and its decision on the question is final. Thus the President 
does not act directly against states as he may against citizens ; 
and this is an important distinction. 

372. In all that concerns us as a nation, either in our ex- 
ternal or internal interests, the Federal Government is thus 
supreme. But in a great many important relations it has 
nothing to do with us ; and these are left as absolutely to the 
state governments, and to the county and city governments, as 
the other and general interests are given to the Federal Gov- 
ernment. In fact, great and apparently overshadowing as is 
the power of our Central Government, it is scarcely felt by the 
individual citizen, except when we have a war, which involves 
the raising of armies and a navy, and heavy taxation, or when 
we are cursed with a heavy debt, or serious internal disorders. 
Before the late war there were millions of Americans who 
hardly knew that there was a Federal Government, except 
when they voted for a. President or a Member of Congress. 
The Federal revenues were then collected entirely at a few 



124 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

custom-houses ; the only tax-gatherer seen by the mass of 
citizens was a state officer ; and the only evidences of the 
Federal power's activity which then came under the notice of 
the multitude of citizens were in the benefits they received 
from post-offices, light-houses, and the survey of wild lands. 

373. A state government has the exclusive authority to 
maintain peace and order within its limits, to punish crimes, 
except those committed against the United States or against 
the laws of nations ; to appoint the police and maintain the 
prisons ; to regulate the tenure of lands and the rules of in- 
heritance. It has charge of education and the public health ; 
it creates and regulates all corporations, such as railroad and 
insurance companies, within its limits ; it declares who of its 
citizens shall vote ; it may regulate the sale of liquors and 
poisons, and abolish nuisances. In all these matters, and 
others of the same kind, the state has jurisdiction and power, 
to the exclusion of the Federal Government ; and the Gov- 
ernor, the state Courts, and the state Legislature have abun- 
dant power to perform all their duties. 

374. For instance, though the Federal Government has the 
right and power to punish resistance to or violation of its own 
laws any where within the national limits, it has no right to 
interfere in case of a riot or insurrection against the state 
authorities, until these, in a formal and prescribed manner, call 
on it for aid. If you remember what you read in Section 
VIII. about the meaning and advantages of decentralization 
and local self-government, you will easily comprehend the rea- 
sons for such a division of power, and perceive that it is not 
arbitrary, or fancifully made. 

375. Within the state there are a number of political sub- 
divisions : the county, township, and school-district, and the 
city and ward ; all these are created and may be changed by 
the state Legislature, and to each a part of the work of gov- 
ernment is assigned by the state constitution and in accord- 
ance with custom, which varies somewhat in different states. 
A city ward is the equivalent of a township ; but cities are 
with us governed by a charter granted by the state Legislate 



THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM. 125 

fire, while county governments are usually prescribed in a 
state constitution. There is no reason for this difference; 
and the practice of granting special charters to cities has been 
the cause of much ignorant and mischievous legislation, and 
of wide-spread corruption. A city government needs to be 
somewhat differently constituted from that of a county ; but 
there is no reason why all the cities of a state should not exist 
under a single charter, carefully drawn. 

376. The table which you will find on the next page will 
give you a summary view of the different political subdivisions 
recognized in our system, with their duties and officers. You 
will see how we proceed, step by step, from the smallest polit- 
ical division, where the people act directly upon measures 
which most immediately concern their daily lives, to the 
largest, to which general powers only are intrusted, having 
reference solely to the welfare and security of the whole na- 
tion. Take notice that by this division of powers and duties, 
first, government is made less cumbrous, and is therefore likely 
to be more efficient and economical ; second, that as the power 
of a subdivision becomes more formidable, it is less intimately 
brought in contact with the people — thus the state govern- 
ment does not concern itself with roads, and the Federal Gov- 
ernment has no charge of schools or the police ; third, that 
thus the people are accustomed as much as possible to act 
directly upon their local and private interests, leaving only 
matters of more extended interest to the charge of the more 
distant and necessarily representative governments, as the 
state and the Federal authorities. Thus political education 
and the spirit of independence are maintained. 



126 



POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 



Name of Division. 


Has charge of 


Officers. 


School District. 


The free or public school. 


School trustees. 


Township, 


Local peace, small offenses 
injustice's court; roads, 
pounds, local nuisances, 
paupers, taxes. 


Trustees, justice of the. 
peace, constable, clerk, 
road -master, assessor 
and collector of taxes. 


County. 


Main or county roads and 
bridges; nuisances,pub- 
lic health, general po- 
lice, crimes and general 
offenses, county court, 
clerk for public records, 
administration of wills, 
superintendence of 
schools and of paupers, 
collection of taxes for 
state and county, jail, 
poor-house. 


Judge, prosecuting at- 
torney, clerk, public 
administrator, sheriff, 
superintendent of 
schools, coroner, treas- 
urer, supervisors or 
commissioners, sur^- 
veyor. 


State. 


General peace and order ; 
the enactment and en- 
forcement of all laws 
applicable to the whole 
state, and under which 
all local bodies act, and 
to which they are sub- 
ject (the state laws are 
the supreme law of the 
state, all county or town- 
ship laws to the contrary 
notwithstanding), mili- 
tia drills, corporations, 
right of suffrage. 


Governor, secretary of 
state, treasurer, attor- 
ney-general, superin- 
tendent of education, 
circuit courts and 
courts of appeal, pub- 
lic works, Legislature. 


Federal. 


War and peace, foreign 
relations, public lands, 
Indians, army and navy, 
light - houses, customs' 
duties, coinage, weights 
and measures, post-of- 
fices. 


President, secretaries of 
state, treasury, inte- 
rior, postmaster-gen^ 
eral and attorney-gen- 
eral, postmasters, rev- 
enue collectors of dif- 
erent kinds, and a 
multitude of other of- 
ficers and clerks. 



OF THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. 127 



XXXVI 

OF THE INALIENABLE BIGHTS OF AN AMEBIC AN 

CITIZEN 

377. In all the constitutions, Federal and state, the people 
have reserved to themselves certain rights and immunities, 
which none of their governments are allowed to interfere 
with ; and it is important that you should understand these. 

378. As an American citizen, you are a free man; and no 
one has a right to enslave your person, except for crime, of 
which you must first be convicted, upon a fair trial in open 
court ; or to take from you your property, except by due 
process of law. 

379. You have a right to believe what you please ; to wor- 
ship God as you please ; to express your opinions on all sub- 
jects freely (but you may be punished for libelous attacks on 
your fellow-men) ; to print what you please (with the same 
restriction) ; to assemble with whom you please, for lawful 
and proper objects ; to petition the state or Federal Govern- 
ment for redress of grievances. 

380. You have a right to be arrested only for cause men- 
tioned in a proper and legal warrant, served by an authorized 
officer of the law, who must show you his authority. 

381. You have a right to be released on bail, unless 
charged with a capital crime ; and to be produced before 
the nearest court, on a writ of habeas corpus, in order that 
that court shall decide whether your arrest and confinement 
were properly made, and for sufficiently probable cause. 

382. You have a right to a speedy trial by jury, to be con- 
fronted with the witnesses against you, to engage a competent 
person for your defense, and to know at once and definitely, 
before your arrest, what you are charged with. 

383. You have a right to appeal to the proper court for 



128 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

protection to your person and property ; and if the consti- 
tuted authorities fail to protect, you, you have a right to 
damages for their neglect. 

384. You have a right to be secure in your house against 
searches by officers of the law, except on proper warrant, 
which must first be shown you, and for sufficient cause. 

385. You have a right to keep and bear arms, but not, 
in most of our states, to carry them concealed upon your per- 
son. 

386. You have a right to sue for damages any officer of 
the law who arrests or tries you in an unlawful manner. 

387. These are the sacred and inalienable rights of all 
American citizens, and no constitution or law can deprive him 
of them. They make him secure against unjust or usurping 
rulers, and against unscrupulous attacks from a fellow-citizen. 
They enable the citizen to be safe against injustice, or to ob- 
tain, by summary or immediate methods, redress against un- 
just attacks. They are possessed by all the people — women 
and children as well as men. 



XXXVII. 

OF THE DUTIES OF AN AMEBIC AN CITIZEN 

388. If you have political rights of which, even by your 
own will, you can not divest yourself, and which are therefore 
properly called inalienable, so you have political duties which 
also you can not justly neglect or lay aside. 

389. It is your duty as an American citizen to obey the 
laws, even if they are, in your belief, unjust or unwise. Gen- 
eral Grant once shrewdly said that the best way to procure 
the repeal of an unjust or unwise law was to rigorously en- 
force it. It is your right to expose the folly or injustice of 
a law, to demand its repeal, and to try to get a majority to 
repeal it. But while it remains a law, you are to obey it. 

390. It is your duty, if you are of age and a man, to vote 



OP THE DUTIES OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. 129 

at all elections, and to inform yourself beforehand what meas- 
ures and men you ought as a good citizen to support. 

391. It is your duty to insist upon the prompt execution 
of the laws ; to be ready, even at much personal incon- 
venience, to aid in their enforcement, if you are called upon 
by proper officers ; and to resent with indignation every sign 
of lawlessness and violence, and require its vigorous suppres- 
sion. For instance, if a riot should break out in a city where 
you are living, you are not to go out of town until it sub- 
sides ; but you are to hasten to offer your support to the 
authorities, and to require their prompt and decisive action 
to restore order. 

392. It is your duty — if you are a voter — to serve, when 
called on, as a grand or petit juror ; and this at even great 
inconvenience. 

393. It is your duty, if you are a man, to serve in the 
militia, if the law commands it ; and every American voter 
ought to have a sufficient knowledge of the manual and use 
of arms to enable him to act efficiently if called out as part 
of the posse comitatus to put down a riot. 

394. It is your duty to act generally with some political 
party, and to exert your influence upon its leaders to induce 
the nomination of capable and honest men for office. And 
it is your duty, if your party nominates a bad man, to vote 
against him, and thus keep the public and general good be- 
fore your eyes, and set an example of true public spirit be- 
fore your fellows. 

395. It is your duty to watch the conduct of public officers, 
to see that they perform their duties and observe their con- 
stitutional limitations ; and if they do not, then it is your 
duty to help to expose them, and at the elections to punish 
them. For it is only by such vigilance that a nation can 
preserve its liberties unimpaired. 

396. These are your political duties, which you can not 
neglect or abjure without disgrace to yourself and harm to 
the country. 

9 F2 



130 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 



XXXVIII. 

OF TRIAL BY JURY. 

397. When a crime or an offense has been committed, and 
the police officers have arrested the person suspected of it, the 
prosecuting officer collects the evidence against him, and upon 
the meeting of the grand jury lays it before them in the form 
of an indictment. They investigate the charge ; call wit- 
nesses before them if they wish, and if they have reason to 
believe guilt probable, they return the indictment with the 
indorsement, " A true bill." If they believe that the charges 
are not sustained, they make return " Not a true bill," where- 
upon the person is released ; but he may be rearrested if, sub- 
sequently, new evidence is found against him. 

398. The grand jury is a body of responsible citizens, usu- 
ally twenty-three in number, selected under the eye of the 
court. We have, of course, grand juries for the Federal as 
well as for the state courts. Their authority to investigate 
crimes and offenses is not limited to cases laid before them 
by the prosecuting officer ; they may make independent 
investigations, and if they find guilt or blame, may make 
what is called a presentment, which may thereupon be fol- 
lowed by an indictment, and this by trial. Upon the meet- 
ing of the grand jury, it is usual for the court to instruct 
them in their duties, and it may also direct their especial at- 
tention to notorious offenses. All their proceedings are se- 
cret, and the oath the grand jurors take makes secrecy a 
duty. 

399. The object of a grand jury is to prevent injustice. If 
the prosecuting attorney were alone empowered to bring of- 
fenders to trial, he might either misuse this power for pur- 
poses of revenge, and thus annoy and disgrace innocent per- 
sons ; or he might be bribed to withhold an indictment, and 



OF TRIAL BY JURY. 131 

thus favor the escape from justice of wealthy or powerful 
criminals. The powers of the grand jury are a check upon 
him ; and their number, and the care usually taken to select 
Only responsible and well-known citizens, makes the corrup- 
tion of a grand jury improbable. The grand jury has power 
to compel the attendance of witnesses. 

400. When a person charged with a crime or an offense is 
brought to trial, it is before a petit jury. The judge is not 
allowed to decide upon the guilt or innocence of the prisoner 
— for he might be prejudiced, or unduly influenced ; twelve 
men, chosen from a numerous list of citizens, are appointed 
to hear the evidence, and to declare upon the question of 
guilt. In selecting a jury, the accused, and the plaintiff or 
the prosecuting attorney, have a right to " challenge " or ob- 
ject to a certain number peremptorily, or without giving 
reasons, and they may object to others if they can show that 
these are prejudiced. The judge attends to the pleadings of 
the lawyers ; takes care that witnesses are properly sworn 
and examined ; and, in his summing up to the jury, points 
out to them if the counsel on either side have made unsup- 
ported assertions, instructs -the jury in their duty, and en- 
deavors to clear the case of all extraneous matter ; his charge 
is of course without bias or favor. Thereupon the jury re- 
tire to deliberate ; and if they can unanimously agree, their 
foreman announces the verdict. The judge then delivers the 
sentence, as provided by the law. "When an accused person 
has been regularly acquitted by the verdict of a jury, he can 
not again be brought to trial for the same offense. 

401. Now you can see that it is highly important, for the 
cause of justice and public order and morality, that both the 
grand and petit juries shall be composed of intelligent and 
upright citizens ; otherwise crime will go unpunished, and 
society will suffer in a . way not easily repairable. Bear in 
mind, therefore, that to serve on a jury is one of the most 
important duties of an American citizen — a duty which he 
can not avoid without wronging the community of which he 
is a part. 



132 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 



XXXIX. 

THE PRIMARY MEETING AND THE CAUCUS. 

402. Party management begins in the townships and wards, 
and with the anion of the body of members of the party in 
these districts. The primary meeting is the plaee where all 
the members of the political party may express their will, 
and where they choose delegates to the larger bodies called 
Dominating conventions. If it were convenient, all the mem- 
bers of the party in a county might meet in one place, to se- 
lect delegates or to nominate candidates ; and in New Jersey 
and some other states this was formerly done. But the town- 
ship or ward primary meeting is now general, because it is the 
least inconvenient. The primary meetings select delegates 
for the county, congressional, and state conventions; and 
these delegates, meeting in conventions on an appointed day, 
nominate the candidates for office. Any person who is a 
voter in the township or ward, and at the next preceding 
election is known to have voted with the party holding the 
primary meeting, may properly take part in it. 

403. As party government is inevitable and necessary in a 
free country, it is the duty of every citizen to attend the 
primary meetings of the party with which he acts. If hon- 
est and intelligent men neglect the primaries, they thereby 
hand the control of their party over to bad men. It is im- 
portant to the welfare of the country that both the great 
political parties shall be controlled by wise and honest men ; 
for a corrupt or debased minority can offer but a feeble oppo- 
sition to the majority, and in reality helps to strengthen and 
to debase the majority ; whereas a powerful, honest, and in- 
telligent minority compels the majority to govern carefully and 
honestly. The demoralization of the party which is in the mi- 
nority may thus, as you see, bring calamities on a country. 



THE PRIMARY MEETING AND THE CAUCUS. 133 

404. " Politics " have always been, in every free state, an 
enticing profession, followed by many honest and high- 
minded men out of a desire to see their favorite principles 
prevail ; by other men to advance their private fortunes ; and 
by yet others from a mixture or combination of both these 
motives. Our own politics are less corrupt, and our own 
politicians, taken as a class, are far more scrupulous than 
those of most free nations have been, either in ancient or 
modern times. When, therefore, men talk or w T rite about 
the peculiar debasement of our politics, you need not en- 
tirely believe them. There is a good deal of irritating ig- 
norance and some corruption among our political leaders, 
but not nearly as much as there is in England or France ; it 
vexes us more because we meet it face to face. The truth 
is that our party politics are more intelligently, less dishon- 
estly, and more honorably conducted than those of Great 
Britain, with which we are oftenest compared, and that the 
average of political morality is higher in the United States 
than in any other nation in the world. 

405. In an ideal state, the people, gifted with unfailing dis- 
cernment of merit, would select continually, and without 
prompting of any kind, the wisest and ablest men for their 
rulers ; and these rulers would devise alw T ays the most benef- 
icent and the noblest of policies for the nation. Practi- 
cally, however, these matters are managed somew T hat dif- 
ferently. The people are guided more or less by newspapers 
and by political leaders ; men, able or the reverse, are brought 
into political life by careful management of their friends, or 
of the higher chiefs of a party, who are always on the look- 
out for capable- men to help them ; platforms are studied 
over and prepared by small coteries of politicians, to make 
them attractive to the people and conformable to the princi- 
ples which the party desires to advance ; and — to return to 
our primary meetings — the delegates chosen at these are for 
the most part selected beforehand by the political managers 
of a county or district, to insure the nomination of certain 
candidates. Thus where several persons desire a nomination 



134 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

for the same place, the primary meetings are the scene of the 
strife between them ; and it is there that good citizens may de- 
feat a corrupt or incapable candidate in their own party. 

406. The preparatory work which I have described to you 
above is done in what is called a caucus — which is simply a 
private meeting of influential politicians. Whether the cau- 
cus shall be a good or an evil thing depends on the character 
of the men who compose it. It is a method of political 
action used alike by the best and the vilest politicians ; the 
wisest and most necessary measures of the last twelve 
years, for instance, as well as the basest and most injurious, 
have been discussed and prepared in caucus before they were 
presented to the public; and both the ablest and the worst 
of our political leaders have been introduced into political 
life, and advanced in it, in these silent, secret, but not there- 
fore necessarily evil councils, by their friends. In a country 
where intelligence is so widely diffused, and where there is 
so high an average of ability, it is very seldom that a man, 
except after long and brilliant service, becomes so conspicu- 
ously the one man for the place that his party retains him 
as a matter of course. 

407. A fault in our political arrangements makes the cau- 
cus very often, in the hands of bad men, an instrument for 
elevating corrupt men to power. This is the practice, in the 
states and cities, of electing a great many of the executive 
officers. "Where this is done, the caucus enables corruption- 
ists to prepare a ticket composed of a few good men and a 
large tail of the lowest class of politicians, and such a " slate " 
is then forced upon the party as " the best thing that can be 
got." The viler kind of politicians do not trouble themselves 
much about a Congressional caucus ; but wherever a dozen or 
twenty candidates are to be nominated, there is their oppor- 
tunity. If the executive head, be he President, Governor, 
or Mayor, has the selection, appointment, and removal of all 
his subordinates, a " slate " becomes impossible, and the cau- 
cus is no longer so powerful a tool in the hands of bad men. 
In some of our states, at one time, members of Congress were 



THE PRIMARY MEETING AND THE CAUCUS. 135 

chosen on a general ticket ; that is to say, the whole Con- 
gressional delegation of the state was voted for by all the peo- 
ple of the state. But experience showed that the caucus put 
a few good men and a multitude of bad ones on the same 
ticket ; and as both parties did this, the result was for evil 
only. It is sometimes urged that if the President, Governor, 
or Mayor has unrestrained power to appoint or remove his 
subordinates, he will appoint bad men. But even the de- 
cisive check of the Senate does not always suffice to prevent 
the appointment of conspicuously bad or incompetent men ; 
and it does serve to conceal the faults of a ruler, and lessen 
his responsibility to the people, in a mischievous manner. It 
is better that a President or Governor or Mayor shall show 
his character plainly by bad appointments ; for then he wil) 
become hateful to the people, and lose his chance of re-elec- 
tion, w T hile the caucus will be shorn of its power for evil. 

408. Do not be ashamed or afraid to meet in caucus, if you 
should by and by take part in politics ; but remember that 
bad men and measures may be defeated there as well as at 
the primary meetings. And as a sound rule for party action, 
remember that if, in spite of your efforts, your party nomi- 
nates a bad man for office, you should openly vote against 
him. For it is better, for your party's interest, that it should 
be defeated if it nominates bad men than that it should suc- 
ceed. When a political party becomes the tool of corrupt or 
ignorant men, it is in danger, not of a temporary, but of a 
lasting defeat. If both parties nominate bad men for an 
office, it is better that your own party should be defeated ; 
for it is not in that case responsible for the misgovernment, 
and your party leaders may learn wisdom from defeat. 
Hence, the more ardently you desire the success of your 
political party, the more vigorously you may scratch the bad 
names of! your ticket when you go to the polls. 



130 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 



XL. 

OF THE IMPORTANCE AND DUTY OF TUB 
MINORITY. 

409. The first duty of a minority is to become a majority. 

410. A minority is just as likely to be right as a majority; 
and if it is, and if it persists in asserting its principles, and 
if its leaders arc able enough to frame a practical and consti- 
tutional policy, and to meet their opponents in argument be- 
fore the people, it will by and by find itself in the majority. 
For " the people, rightly instructed, always favor the right." 
The long course of the antislavery discussion showed this. 
The first antislavery men were not practical politicians, but 
moralists ; they demanded immediate and unconditional eman- 
cipation, because slavery was unjust, and injustice ought at 
any price to be removed. These excellent men had but little 
direct influence on practical politics — for the answer to their 
appeal was that the Constitution forbade interference with 
slavery where it existed. What they did was to advertise to 
the people, with wonderful courage and pertinacity, the mon- 
strous wickedness of slavery. The political leaders of the mi- 
nority, however, seized their opportunity, and at the auspicious 
time framed a policy upon the slavery question which was 
both practical and constitutional. They said, " We will not 
touch slavery in the states where it exists — that would be un- 
constitutional ; but we demand that it shall not be extended 
to the territories, w T hich are controlled by the Federal Govern- 
ment." With that policy they appealed to the people ; and 
as it was both right and practical, and constitutional, and as 
the minority possessed very able leaders, who freely met 
their opponents in public debate, in time they achieved a 
perfectly legitimate political victory. 

411. A minority is contemptible, and must fail, when it 



OF THE IMPORTANCE AND DUTY OF THE MINORITY. 137 

has neither principles nor policy to oppose to the majority, 
but relies upon abuse of its opponents, or mere criticism of 
the majority's blunders. For in such a case, unless the ma- 
jority is extraordinarily corrupt or inefficient, the people, see- 
ing no principles at issue, will condone its offenses, and main- 
tain it in power, out of a conservative spirit which is one of 
the most valuable qualities in a free people. Nor are they 
wrong in this ; for if the minority have no satisfactory policy 
or principles to offer, their struggle is merely one for place 
or office, with which the people have but little sympathy. 

412. In general, inefficiency is more quickly resented by 
the people in their rulers than corruption, unless that assumes 
the dimensions of mere vulgar robbery. Inefficiency and 
corruption usually go together. But the strongest appeal 
of a minority to the American people is against injustice ; 
and a party in power may lose an election, and find itself 
suddenly deserted by its strongest friends among the people, 
on such an issue as that called the Poland Gag Law, which 
was believed to attack the liberty of the press. 

413. A strong and able minority is a very important part 
of a legislative body. Its office there is to examine and criti- 
cise the propositions and acts of the party in power ; to scru- 
tinize its expenditures ; to expose its inefficiency, its usurpa- 
tions of power ; to ridicule its blunders ; and to oppose all 
attempts at bad legislation. Where a minority is strong in 
votes, and has able leaders, the first effect of its vigilance is 
to make the party in power more careful in administration 
and legislation, and thus to benefit the country ; and its 
second effect is to rally to its side the most independent 
and ablest members of the majority, and thus — if the ma- 
jority is inefficient or corrupt — to prepare the people's minds 
for a change at the elections. 

414. But, on the other hand, where a legislative minority 
lacks ability and statesmanship, and offers a merely factious 
or trivial opposition, it is very apt to fall into contempt with 
the people, and to injure its own prospects of political sue* 
cess. 



138 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 



XLL 

OF CITY GOVERNMENTS. 

415. A city is a political corporation, created by the states 
and governed according to a charter framed by the state Leg- 
islature, and which may be altered or repealed by that body 
at will. This charter prescribes the duties and defines the 
powers of the rulers, just as any other political constitution 
does. 

41 G. In our political system cities have become the strong- 
holds of misrule. This arises from two causes : first, the city 
government concerns itself more intimately with the lives of 
the inhabitants than any other, wherefore there is a propor- 
tionately greater possibility of corruption and maladministra- 
tion ; second, city charters, almost without exception, subdivide 
power and responsibility among boards or commissions, and 
thus disable the people from discovering the authors of cor- 
ruption and misrule, and from punishing them even if they 
are known. 

417. The inhabitants of a city depend upon their central 
political authorities to make, repair, and clean the streets, to 
regulate the police, to abate nuisances, to protect them against 
fires, to adopt and enforce health regulations, to grant licenses 
to sell liquor, to provide public markets, to regulate street cars 
and gas-pipes, to care for the water supply, to manage the parks 
and other public places, to take charge of paupers, to con- 
trol hospitals, to manage the free schools, to control wharves 
and piers if it is a sea-port, and to do a number of other 
things, of which some, outside of cities, are done by each citi- 
zen for himself, or by the private enterprise of citizens united 
for that purpose, and others are divided among county, town- 
ship, and school-district authorities, each independently and 
directly responsible to the people. Moreover, all public work 



OF CITY GOVERNMENTS. 139 

in a city is on a large scale, and involves very great expends 
tures, compared with those of a rural county. Finally, the 
population of a city is less homogeneous in character than 
that of a rural county; the proportion of poverty is much 
greater ; the number of people who live from hand to mouth 
is larger; the average of comfort is lower; the dependent 
part of the population is more numerous. At the same time, 
little or nothing is left for the people to determine in the 
smaller divisions — the wards and school-districts ; and they 
are thus made politically ignorant. 

418. Under such circumstances, it is of great importance 
that the central power, to which so much is assigned, shall be 
clearly visible to the people, in order that they may always 
and easily hold it responsible. The entire executive power 
and responsibility ought to be given to a single man— the 
Mayor — because then every citizen who had cause of com- 
plaint would know whom to blame. The Mayor ought to have 
the appointment of all his subordinates, because thus only can 
he hold them to their duty. The executive powers — that is 
to say, the enforcement of the laws — ought not in any detail 
to be assumed by the Council ; for this is a most fertile 
source of corruption. The Council, which is the city's legis- 
lature, ought to be a numerous body, so that each councilman 
or alderman should be personally known to his small constitu- 
ency, who could then oblige him to care for their interests, 
and punish him for neglect or corruption. Finally, the courts 
in a city ought to possess a very high character, and neither 
judges nor justices of the peace ought to be elected, but should 
be appointed — probably by the Governor of the state — and 
for life or good behavior, and they should have large salaries. 
With such a system, the city government would be amenable 
at all times to the will of the inhabitants, who could punish 
extravagance, inefficiency, or any kind of maladministration, 
at the elections, if they chose ; and could at any rate make as 
good a government as they wished. Moreover, I want you to 
remember that where great power is given to an executive, 
able men like the place, and will seek it ; for able men like to 



140 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

exercise power. But if you make of a governor or mayor 
only a figure-Lead, and give tlie real power to others, the of- 
fice falls into contempt. 

419. Now almost all our city governments in tins country 
are framed on principles directly contrary to tLose I Lave 
stated above. TLe executive powers, wliicL ought to be com 
centrated in a Mayor, are divided among different boards and 
commissions, and are thus frittered away. The Council is 
usually a small body; tbe judges and justices of peace are 
elected, togetLer witli a large number of executive officers ; 
the different parts of tbe executive Lold office for different 
periods, and the people can never, at a single election, remove 
all the officers who have been concerned in maladministration ; 
and finding themselves thus disabled, and compelled, more- 
over, to vote for a great number of officers of whose character 
and fitness they can not inform themselves, they presently lose 
all interest in public affairs, and resign the political power to 
knaves and their tools. The Mayor of a city like New York, 
did he have the powers which belong to the office, would 
have authority and patronage almost equal to that of the 
President of the United States ; and the office would be one 
for which the ablest citizens would strive. But if he has no 
power, or but little, really able men will refuse the place. 

420. City governments are made needlessly cumbrous and 
corrupt, also, by performing some duties which might well be 
left to private effort. For instance, the fire-insurance com- 
panies could manage a fire department much more cheaply 
and effectively than a political government. Again, the ques- 
tion of licensing drinking-shops might well be left to the peo- 
ple in the wards. Street-cleaning could, perhaps, be left to 
the wards also, though, as it has to do with the general health, 
this might not be possible unless the city government assumed 
not only the inspection of streets, but the punishment by fine 
of those ward authorities who neglected this duty. Finally, 
the city ought not to own market spaces, docks, piers, or other 
property used by private individuals. The city government 
should exercise, of course, the right of police and inspection, 



OF SOME FAULTS IN OUR STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 141 

but it can not own and manage such property either profit- 
ably or efficiently. 

421. If you remember what you read about Decentraliza- 
tion and about the Responsibility of the Executive, you will see 
the way in which city governments may be reformed : first by 
relieving them of work which they can not do well ; and next 
by fixing power and responsibility upon the Mayor. What is 
wanted is to enable the people readily, and at a single effort, 
to change the whole administration ; then they can really 
punish maladministration — and they undoubtedly will, when- 
ever it begins to oppress or offend them. For the mass of 
the people are vitally interested in moderately good govern- 
ment, and will inevitably get it, if the machinery of govern- 
ment is so arranged that they can, by willing it at the polls, 
punish the inefficient or corrupt rulers. 



XLII. 

OF SOME FAULTS IN OUR STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

422. It is a grave fault of most of our state constitutions 
that they allow, and in some cases make necessary, special 
legislation. By this is meant acts specially granting privileges 
to particular persons. You will see, if you consider for a mo- 
ment, that where such grants are made, the Legislature be- 
comes subject to the attack of cunning and unscrupulous men, 
who will seek privileges injurious to the people ; that rival 
corporations will oppose each other before the Legislature, 
and resort to bribery to gain their ends or defeat their oppo- 
nents ; and that for perfectly proper objects men will be put 
to a needless expense and trouble to obtain a special charter. 

423. Whatever any citizens or association can rightfully do, 
they may do under general laws, equally applicable to all other 
citizens. Thus every state should have a clearly drawn gener- 
al railroad law, and other general laws under which all kinds 
of corporate enterprises could be prosecuted without the ne* 



142 POLITICS FOR FOUNG AMERICANS. 

cessity for special charters ; and the Legislature should be for- 
bidden in the Constitution to grant or to entertain any appli- 
cation for a special charter of any kind whatever. 

424. It is another grave fault of most of our state constitu- 
tions that they interfere with the power of the Governor to 
appoint his subordinates in the executive department, and 
thus weaken responsibility, and cause confusion in the govern- 
ment. Every where, also, the sheriff is elected in the coun- 
ties ; whereas he ought to be appointed by the Governor. He 
is the Governor's lieutenant in the county ; the peace officer, 
who in case of riot or public disturbance has a right to call out 
the body of citizens, and with whom in all such emergencies 
the Governor communicates. His office, which is of right a 
very high and responsible one, is now degraded, and, having 
large fees annexed to it, has long been one of the important 
political " spoils." 

425. It is another grave fault in almost all our state con- 
stitutions that they oblige the people to elect the judges, and 
thus debauch the courts, and lower their tone and authority. 

426. It is another grave fault of the state constitutions that 
they restrict the power of the people, in the counties and 
townships, to refuse to license drinking-shops, to adopt com- 
pulsory education regulations, and to do other things for 
which they ought to be competent. Thus the Constitution 
errs in making too rigid the general rules under which the 
people are to live. 



XLIII. 

OF TERRITORIES, PUBLIC LANDS, COLONIES, AND 
MANIFEST DESTINY. 

427. One of our greatest and most important politica. safe- 
guards lies undoubtedly in the possession of vast quantities of 
public lands, and in the wise and liberal policy under which 
these lands have been thrown open to settlement. 



OF TERRITORIES, MANIFEST DESTINY, ETC. 143 

428. The Federal Government is the original owner of waste 
or unsettled lands — both those in the territories and those 
which lie within constituted states. It has made a free gift to 
every state of a large quantity of these public lands, to be 
used for the support of public schools and of agricultural col- 
leges ; it usually gives to a state all the swamp and overflow- 
ed lands within its bounds which were public or Congress 
lands at the time of its admission into the Union; and it 
gives to every actual settler one hundred and sixty acres 
from the surveyed lands, free of cost, except the trifling 
charges for proofs of actual settlement and continued cultiva- 
tion. It has also, within a few years, given a great quantity 
of land to railroad companies, on condition that they should 
construct and work railroads through these lands, and thus 
open them to settlement. 

429. The political advantage of our possession of so vast a 
quantity of wild lands lies in this, that it leaves open for many 
years a broad field for the exertions of the more adventurous, 
enterprising, and restless part of our community. A hired la- 
borer to whom the condition of dependence has become hate- 
ful has no refuge in a thickly settled European state except 
emigration to a distant country, and abandonment of his own 
nationality. This ought not to deter a European from emi- 
grating ; but the American workman is happy that he need 
not leave his country, but may, under the protection of its 
flag and laws, settle himself on the public lands, and there, 
with very little capital, achieve independence at least, and per- 
haps more. He has not to fear unequal or strange laws ; for 
the farthest Western territory is ruled by Congress upon well- 
defined principles, and becomes a state as soon as it has ac- 
quired a sufficient population. The flag which floats over 
him commands peace and order, and the whole power of the 
Federal Government is ready to make his life and property 
secure. 

430. A territory is organized politically by permission of 
Congress ; its Governor and other executive officers and judges 
are appointed by the President ; it has a Legislature which 



144 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

enacts laws of local application, but Congress has the right to 
reject any of these acts. The inhabitants elect a delegate who 
represents them in Congress, but who has no vote. His duty 
is to tell the House in which he sits the wants of his constitu- 
ents. When the people of a territory desire to form them- 
selves into a state, they are allowed by Congress to frame and 
adopt a Constitution. This they present to Congress, for its 
scrutiny and approval ; and Congress may in its discretion re- 
ject the instrument, and thus refuse to create the state ; and 
from this decision there is no appeal, except to another Con- 
gress. Some territories, as Colorado, have applied several 
times for admission as states. The people of a territory do 
not vote for President. 

431. Hitherto we have been fortunate in our territorial ac- 
quisitions, for we have gained land encumbered with but few 
inhabitants, and well fitted by climate, soil, and other natural 
properties, for the prosperous settlement of our own farmers 
and mechanics. Thus not only our laws, but, what is of infi- 
nitely greater importance, our manners and customs, have been 
easily transferred to and made dominant in "these new lands ; 
and it is one of our greatest pieces of national good-fortune 
that, with unimportant local differences, we are still, in spite 
of the vast extension of our boundaries, a homogeneous people 
— that is to say, a nation whose parts or elements are similar, 
not only in language, but in habits, customs, manners, meth- 
ods of thought, and modes of action. 

432. If you will think clearly, you will see that what we 
want, for the future, is not more people, but more land. If we 
should receive no further additions of population from Eu- 
rope, we are now so numerous and so prosperous that our 
numerical increase will be very rapid. But we shall constant- 
ly receive great numbers of European immigrants, and these, 
who readily adapt themselves to our customs, are a welcome 
addition, and quickly become a part of us. For their descend- 
ants and ours, it would be a great advantage if we could secure 
still more vacant or sparsely settled territory, provided that 
these new lands were, by their climate and productions, fitted 



OF TERRITORIES, MANIFEST DESTINY, ETC. 145 

for settlement by our own people. When, therefore, people 
use the phrase " Manifest Destiny," they mean — if they re- 
flect at all — not that we ought to, or could without hurt to 
ourselves, annex indiscriminately all the states adjoining us, 
but that it is a part of our natural and sound policy to pos- 
sess ourselves, for the use of our own people, of all the waste 
and desert lands lying near our boundaries. 

433. Plainly, the annexation of tropical islands like Cuba, 
San Domingo, or the Hawaiian group, does not fall within 
this policy ; for, 1st, these countries have already a tolerably 
dense population. 2d. This population is alien to ours in race, 
and in all its habits and customs, as well as in language. 3d. 
These islands are not suitable to make homes for our farmers 
and mechanics ; on the contrary, their products are grown on 
estates where a few planters employ, at very low wages, great 
numbers of rude laborers, and need but a very few intelligent 
mechanics — nor could their industries be profitably pur- 
sued in a different way. Finally, the people whom we should 
have to accept with the land, in annexing these islands or the 
thickly settled parts of Mexico, are not fitted by character or 
training for the duties of American citizenship ; and, as they 
occupy the land, there would be but a slender possibility of 
assimilating them to ourselves. But, on the other hand, we 
could not with security to ourselves refuse them political 
rights, if we made them a part of our body politic. It is re- 
pugnant to our political theory to hold territories except with 
the expectation of their speedily becoming states ; because 
otherwise local self-government would be impaired, and the 
Federal administration would unduly increase its patronage 
and means of corruption. 

434. Thus, as we want land and not people, sound policy 
tells us not to annex territory which has already an independ- 
ent and tolerable dense population. But sound policy also 
urges us to cultivate intimate and friendly relations with our 
neighbors ; and this we can do with advantage to ourselves as 
well as to them by establishing with them the utmost free- 
dom of commercial exchange. Commerce makes sure and 

10 G 



146 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

faithful allies ; and if we were wise enough to establish and 
maintain absolute free trade with Canada and Mexico, with 
the Sandwich Islands, with San Domingo and Hayti, and 
with Cuba — if, as is probable, that island becomes independ- 
ent of Spain — we should greatly extend our own commerce, 
and should have the use of all these countries without the re- 
sponsibility of ruling them. We should find them willing 
and faithful allies in case of war; and our own course to- 
ward them would preserve them from the aggressions of Eu- 
ropean powers. In this way, I would like you to believe, we 
should best fulfill, if not our Manifest Destiny, what is of 
greater importance, our Manifest Duty, toward these weaker 
neighbors of ours. 



XLIV. 

WHEN WE NUMBER ONE HUNDRED MILLIONS. 

435. The larger the machine, the more important is it 
that it shall be built upon sound principles of mechanics, and 
that it shall be carefully managed in accordance with the laws 
of its construction ; for a break in a machine which weighs 
a hundred tons and moves at a great speed in all its parts 
is more disastrous than one in a hand -machine whose mo- 
mentum is insignificant, even if its speed of revolution should 
be great. 

436. What is true of a piece of machinery in this respect is 
equally true of a state or nation. The more populous it is, 
and the more extended its area, the more unwieldy it be- 
comes, the more disturbing is every friction of the parts, 
and the more vital it is that its managers or rulers shall be 
made to adhere closely to the principles on wliich its govern- 
ment is constructed. 

437. The fundamental and most vital principle underlying 
our political system is that called Decentralization, by which 
the duties imposed by the people upon their rulers are divided 



WHEN WE NUMBER ONE HUNDRED MILLIONS. 147 

among several distinct governments, each acting independent- 
ly in its sphere, bnt all subordinate to one general or organic 
law, called with us the Federal Constitution, and so arranged 
as to work harmoniously to a common purpose. 

438. You have seen, in other sections, how this division of 
powers is regulated in our political system ; and I have ex- 
plained to you that it has clearly denned objects : namely, to 
leave as much as possible to the private enterprise and inge- 
nuity of the people ; to leave, to them also, in the smaller polit- 
ical subdivisions, the direct management of their minor or lo- 
cal affairs, and- thus to train them in independence, self-gov- 
ernment, and public spirit ; secondly, to enable the people eas- 
ily to control and change their rulers at regular elections, and 
to do this in one locality without necessarily disturbing the 
whole country ; thirdly, to give the people, in their different 
subordinate governments, strongholds against possible usurpa- 
tion of power by the Federal rulers, and in the Federal Govern- 
ment security for peace, order, and free exchange and inter- 
communication in all the parts ; fourthly, to relieve the Central 
or Federal Government of a multitude of details, the control of 
which would make it cumbrous, inefficient, and tyrannical, and 
would dangerously increase the patronage of the Federal rul- 
ers and their power to corrupt the people ; and, finally, to en- 
able the people of different states, counties, and even town- 
ships to determine, each locality for itself, upon local regu- 
lations and laws suited to their habits and customs — all of 
which laws, however, are to be in conformity with the Federal 
Constitution and the laws of Congress. 

439. Thus we secure uniformity in the general system, with 
independence, variety, and elasticity in details ; the least inter- 
ference with personal liberty, combined with security to per- 
son and property. 

440. We Americans enjoy the most perfect government in 
the world ; and we owe to it almost all the blessings which 
make our lives exceptionally happy. Peace, liberty to a degree 
unknown to the subjects of European powers, free opportunity 
for the exercise of all our faculties, knowledge and intelligence 



148 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

within the reach of the humblest citizen, security against in- 
justice, stability of order — these and other blessings we owe, 
not to the rulers we choose, but to the form of government 
tinder which we live, which is as beneficent in what it leaves 
undone as in what it does. 

441. But in all earthly contrivances there is a tendency to 
change ; and it has been noticed that as we increase in popu- 
lation there is an increasing propensity to impose more upon 
the Federal Government, and to take from the powers of the 
local governments. This all wise citizens ought to resist, for 
as we increase in population it is necessary that we shall even 
add to the number of objects over which the people shall de- 
termine and rule in their local governments ; for thus only 
can their political training be continued. If the Federal army 
should always be held ready to put down local disorders ; if 
the state Legislatures should continue to undertake the gov- 
ernment of cities ; if the Legislatures or Congress should un- 
dertake the adoption of prohibitory laws ; if Congress should 
assume the charge of public education and the control of cor- 
porations : by the time we number a hundred millions the 
American people will have far less public spirit and far less 
capacity for self-government than now. 

442. It is in this direction that wise citizens will strive to 
guard against future dangers. The inconveniences, the tempo- 
rary maladministration, and above all the apparent carelessness 
with which the people condone blunders in their public serv- 
ants, need not give you occasion for gloomy forebodings. Our 
people are naturally inattentive to minor details in their gov- 
ernments. They forgive much to their rulers, if only they 
are convinced that these have an honest desire to serve the 
public. They are slow to lose their faith in old public serv- 
ants, and especially in a political party which has once secured 
their confidence by conspicuous good service. 

443. This quality, which is often vexatious, and sometimes 
causes thoughtful men to despair, is in fact a most valuable 
trait in any people ; for it secures what is of the very greatest 
importance in public affairs — stability. 



WHEN WE NUMBER ONE HUNDRED MILLIONS. 149 

444. Change is so great a curse that we could not even 
abolish so great a wrong as slavery without great temporary 
suffering : and that people is happiest and most likely to main- 
tain its liberties, and to be prosperous, which, by natural tem- 
perament, dislikes change, and can be moved to it only upon 
important occasions and for clearly and even pressingly neces- 
sary objects. Stability of laivs, stability in industry and busi- 
ness, stability of character and of purpose in the individual, are 
all of far greater importance than the most brilliant experi- 
ments in government, or the most seductive and adventurous 
enterprises. 

445. But — finally — bear in mind that nothing is stable 
except Justice. Unjust and unequal laws are liable to 
perpetual change. 



XLV. 

BULES FOB TEE CONDUCT OF DELIBERATIVE 
ASSEMBLIES. 

446. When you come to act with others in a public meet- 
ing of any kind, whether it is a college debating club, a town, 
church, or business meeting, or a legislative body, you will 
discover the extreme importance of orderly and systematic 
proceedings. A numerous assembly of men gathered for 
consultation or action of any kind very easily falls into dis- 
order, and even slight disturbances or irregularities cause a 
great waste of time and temper. Thus a petty obstruction 
in the line of march of an army, which to two or three per- 
sons would be hardly noticeable, might yet, if the army con- 
tained ten thousand men, each of whom would have to leap 
over it, probably delay the rear several hours. 

447. Moreover, wherever men are gathered in deliberative 
assemblies, there will be some of hasty tempers, some more 
eager, less logical, or more peremptory than others ; and to 
preserve the rights of all it is absolutely necessary that each 



150 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

member shall be able to appeal to some generally recognized 
rules of procedure, and that all shall submit to these rules. 

448. To avoid disorder and maintain the rights of each, 
English-speaking people have in the course of time perfected 
rules for the conduct of public business, which apply as well 
to a debating club as to the Houses of Congress. These gen- 
eral rules are founded on common-sense, and have for their 
main objects the easy preservation of order and fair play to 
all, and the protection of the minority in such bodies. 

449. Wlu-n the French legislative body falls into an uproar 
and confusion too great for its presiding officer to control, 
he puts on his hat, and by that act concludes the session. 
II is only way to restore order is to stop the proceedings en- 
tirely, lint in the British House of Commons, or in the 
American Congress, long-established and universally respected 
rules, to violate which would be a very grave offense, prevent 
the necessity of such a ridiculous and time-wasting expedient. 

450. The great body of the rules, as well as the precedents 
on which they rest, are contained in various books with which 
Congress and the State Legislatures are familiar, and to which 
constant reference is made in these bodies. But it is not 
necessary to the proper conduct of a debating or college so- 
ciety, or of a town or church meeting, that its members 
should be conversant with the whole body of Parliamentary 
law. A knowledge of the elementary rules which should 
govern proceedings in all deliberative assemblies is very use- 
ful to every American ; and these, accordingly, I will endeavor 
to arrange in a clear and intelligible manner for your use in 
the following pages. Acquaintance with these elementary 
rules may enable you on occasion to save the time of a public 
meeting, help to maintain order and dispatch business in it, 
and preserve your own temper. 

451. I desire, first of all, to impress upon you the absolute 
necessity of conducting all such bodies with dignity and order. 
Not unfrequently young people meeting in a debating club 
or other such society fancy the object of their convocation 
too unimportant to make dignified conduct necessary. This 



DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES. 151 

is a mistake. No business whatever can be well conducted, 
nor can any society or assembly prosper, unless there is de- 
corum, self-restraint, and such respect shown to the object of 
the meeting and to the persons assembled as will lend dignity 
and even a little solemnity to the proceedings. I have seen, 
once in my life, a state legislative body in which the Speaker 
was careless on these points, and weakly allowed members to 
enter with hats on their heads, to smoke during the session, 
to interrupt him and other members, and to indulge in trivial 
and disrespectful language ; and I noticed that this body did 
not respect itself : the disorderly conduct „ permitted to its 
members made the body contemptible to itself, and affected 
very seriously its usefulness to the people. Hence, no matter 
how unimportant the object of a public meeting may be, 
if you are one of its members, it is your duty to enter 
quietly and with uncovered head ; to sit in your seat at- 
tentively listening to the proceedings ; to address yourself, 
if you speak, to the presiding officer only ; to refrain from 
all trifling or disorderly conduct ; and thus to assert the 
dignity of the body and preserve its decorum while it is in 
session. 

452. The first business of a meeting is to choose a presid- 
ing officer. In large and formal assemblies, as political con- 
ventions, it is usual to begin with the selection of a temporary 
chairman. This is because in such assemblies the office of 
chairman or president is often so important that several per> 
sons desire it, and it is necessary to establish order, so as to 
enable the assembly to choose that one whom a majority 
prefers. The temporary chairman calls the meeting to order; 
and when quiet is obtained declares nominations in order, 
whereupon the candidates for chairman or president and sec- 
retary are nominated and elected. Or it may happen that 
the temporary chairman appoints, at the desire of the assem- 
bly, a committee to report a list of officers. 

453. Where a public body comes together without previous 
organization, there has usually been some preliminary under- 
standing among those who called it together as to the per- 



152 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

son to be chosen presiding officer ; and in such a case one of 
these rises in the meeting and nominates the person thus 
agreed on, and puts the nomination to vote. If the meeting 
chooses it may vote him down ; and in such case, naturally, 
another person would then be proposed. Usually, however, 
there is no such disagreement on the first organization. 

454. In any case, the meeting is not organized and pre- 
pared for business until a presiding officer, and properly also 
a secretary, are chosen. 

455. Where the body has already officers, the chairman or 
president takes the chair punctually at the hour previously 
appointed, and calls the meeting to order. 

456. In permanent bodies, the next proceeding in order is 
to call the roll of members. The object of this is to ascer- 
tain in a formal manner that a quorum is present. 

457. A quorum is the number of persons required by the 
rules of the assembly or society for the proper transaction of 
business. Usually this is one more than half the total num- 
ber of members ; but the number may be fixed by a special 
rule. No business can be properly transacted without a 
quorum, except the calling of the roll, and the necessary pro- 
ceedings for summoning absent members. This is to pre- 
vent a minority from taking advantage of the absence of the 
majority to adopt measures and transact business which would 
not have the consent of the majority. If at any time during 
the session a quorum is not present, any member may call 
the attention of the chairman to that fact, whereupon all busi- 
ness stops. Parliamentary bodies, as Congress or a State 
Legislature, have by law the power to compel the attendance 
of members ; and when no quorum is present, if the House 
does not wish to adjourn, it sends its sergeant-at-arms to sum- 
mon absent members to the bar, where they may be interro- 
gated by the presiding officer as to the reason for their ab- 
sence, and, if the House wishes, fined. Such a proceeding 
is styled a " Call of the House ;" and when it is determined 
on, the doors are usually locked, and remain locked until the 
House declares its wish to have them reopened. This is to 



DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES. 153 

beep those present from leaving the House, and to maintain 
a quorum for business. 

458. The assembly being organized and the officers in their 
places, it is the duty of the chairman or president to state the 
business before it. If the body has met in pursuance of any 
law or previous resolution, it may be proper to read that. If 
several matters of business are to come up, he announces first 
that which is first in order ; and thus the body goes regularly 
to its work. 

459. It is the duty of the presiding officer to maintain or- 
der. To this end he, and not the House, is addressed by the 
speakers ; to him all motions, resolutions, and bills are sub- 
mitted ; no member may speak unless he is first recognized 
by the president ; if several rise at once to address him, it is 
his part to recognize one, whereupon the others sit down ; and 
where, as constantly happens, members do not understand 
the order of business before the meeting, or its condition at 
any moment, he must be ready to explain, to decide upon the 
propriety of motions, and generally to conduct the meeting. 
It is of great importance that the presiding officer should be 
treated with respect ; that -his decisions should be promptly 
and clearly made ; and that they should be readily acquiesced 
in. If a member doubts the correctness of a chairman's de- 
cision, he may say so, and appeal to the House to support 
him ; and the House may, at its discretion, overrule such a 
decision. But this ought seldom to be done, and will rare- 
ly happen if the chairman is competent. Wrangling and 
fussiness are productive of disorder in a public meeting; 
and it is generally the most ignorant members who are 
ready to jump to their feet with a question of order or an 
appeal against the chairman. 

460. In legislative bodies, where a part of the business is 
referred to committees to be considered and elaborated, such 
committees are either selected by the presiding officer — as in 
the Federal House of Eepresentatives — or elected by the 
House itself— as in the United States Senate. In the latter 
case, practically, the majority meet in caucus, and there frame 

G2 



154 



POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 



the committees, which are afterwards formally reported and 
submitted to the vote of the whole body. The Speakership 
in the Lower House is much sought after, because of the 
power the Speaker has over the policy of the country in the 
selection of committees. Where the Speaker is an able man, 
he can thus at the beginning of a session give a direction to 
the public policy by placing at the heads of important com- 
mittees men of decided views. Also, he has thus the power 
to favor his personal friends. The reference of business to 
committees is that they may consider the proposed measure, 
and report upon it to the House, which may then concur 
with the committee or reject its report. This saves time ; 
but it is also apt to prevent discussion ; and the Federal 
House of Representatives has in the course of time become 
the slave of its committees, who, except in the case of rev- 
enue measures, are very apt to prepare a verdict which the 
House is compelled to accept without debate, by the adroit 
use of a motion called " the. previous question," of which 
you will hear further on. 

461. The order of business is regulated by the meeting, 
which may set a certain day and hour for the consideration 
of a specified motion ; may declare a regular order for the 
introduction of business; and may otherwise regulate this 
matter. In the Federal House of Representatives, for in- 
stance, for the general convenience, one day in the week is set 
apart for the consideration of private bills ; an hour on an- 
other day is set apart for a call of the states, for the intro- 
duction and reference of bills and joint resolutions ; and if 
any member on a certain day can get the consent of the 
House by a two-thirds vote, he may have even these rules 
suspended for the introduction of special business. In any 
case, and whatever business is to come up, the Speaker an- 
nounces it to the House. 

462. When the member of an assembly wishes to make a 
motion or introduce a matter of business, he rises, and calls 
out, - Mr. Speaker " — or whatever the title of the presiding 
officer may be ; if he is recognized, he has then the floor, and 



DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES. 155 

states his proposition. He may be required to reduce this to 
writing ; and if it is an important matter he has probably 
taken the precaution to do this beforehand, so that it may 
be recorded without error. Any motion, to be entertained, 
must be seconded, which is an immediate, proof to the as- 
sembly that more than one of its members favors it. A 
motion made and seconded, and announced by the presiding 
officer, is thereupon the property of the meeting, and can not 
be withdrawn without its consent ; this, however, is almost 
always given. 

463. A fundamental rule is that a motion voted down can 
not be repeated until some other business has intervened. 

464. Thus the motion to adjourn, which is said to be always 
in order — because an assembly ought always to have it in its 
power to dissolve its session — can not, if it is voted down, be 
made again until some other motion has been made or business 
transacted. This is to prevent an irritating waste of time. 

465. It is another fundamental rule that no one can inter- 
rupt a speaker with a motion, even one to adjourn. The per- 
son who has the floor is entitled to complete his remarks, or 
to occupy the whole time allowed him by the meeting, and 
interruptions are out of order. If he gives permission to 
another to interrupt him he thereby resigns his own right 
to the floor; though he may give way for a brief interrup- 
tion, by general consent, and resume afterward. 

466. Next in the order of precedence, after the motion to 
adjourn, is the motion to lay on the table ; which is substan- 
tially to adjourn the business in hand, in order that something 
else may be taken up. 

467. Neither of these motions is debatable ; because the 
assembly ought to have a right without delay, and at any 
time, to dissolve, or to turn to another subject. 

468. A successful motion to lay on the table is generally 
equivalent to a rejection of the measure. This can not come 
up again out of its regular turn, except by a motion to take 
it up, or to reconsider the motion to lay on the table ; and 
the pressure of business before a meeting usually makes its 



156 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

members reluctant to go back to measures once disposed of 
or put out of the way. A motion to take a bill or other 
matter from the table is debatable. 

469. Third in the order of precedence, among Parliamen- 
tary motions, is " the previous question." This is of the 
same nature as the two preceding : its object is to get done 
with business; and, like the other two, it is not debatable, be- 
cause the assembly ought to be able at any time to make 
known that it is ready to vote upon the question before it. 
When a member calls for "the previous question," and the 
call is seconded, the presiding officer is bound to put it. It 
takes tins shape: "Shall the main question be now put?" 
If the majority vote "aye," that shows that they have made 
up their minds, and wish no further debate. 

470. If the assembly, by supporting the previous question, 
demands the main question, then the presiding officer takes 
in their proper turn, beginning with the last offered, the sev- 
eral amendments t<> the question before the House, if there 
are any, ami finally brings to vote the question itself. 

471. The previous question is sometimes an instrument in 
the hands of a majority to prevent debate, and to push through 
measures which perhaps would not bear discussion; but where 
it is ruthlessly used, it is very apt to arouse a feeling of op- 
position which is dangerous to a majority. 

472. AYhcre it is pretty certain that a public assembly or 
meeting is ready and desirous to vote, a cry of " Question ! 
question !" calls the attention of the presiding officer to that 
fact ; and if he perceives that the meeting really wishes to 
vote, he usually, before recognizing the next speaker, asks, 
" Is the meeting ready to vote on the proposition ?" and the 
answering cries tell him what is the wish of the members. 
In such a case there is no need for the " previous question " 
formally put. 

473. The three motions above described are not debatable, 
because, if they were, the assembly would be helplessly in 
the hands of a few of its members, who could by intermin- 
able debates keep it in session, or prevent it from acting on 



DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES. 157 

bills or measures before it. The United States Senate does 
not allow the previous question, and the minority there some- 
times deliberately and purposely put off decisions on measures 
by a long series of speeches, which have the purpose, by a 
continuous session, to wear out the majority, and bring them 
to terms or force them to a compromise. 

474. You must understand that a motion to adjourn is not 
subject even to an amendment to adjourn to a named day or 
hour ; because, as an amendment, this would open debate. 
Where it is desired to substitute for an adjournment with- 
out date one to a fixed date, it is usual to make a request 
that the first motion be withdrawn, whereupon the other is 
made. 

475. It is well to remember also that a motion to take a 
recess is different from one to adjourn. A recess only inter- 
rupts, and does not close the session ; and when after the re- 
cess the assembly comes together, it proceeds to business at 
once without opening formalities, such as reading the journal 
or calling the roll. On the journal the date of the session 
remains unaltered, even though the recess should carry it over 
to another civil day. But a recess can not carry the meeting 
past the regular hour of its next day's assembling. 

476. The business before a meeting is in the shape either 
of a bill or a resolution. In either case it is subject to the 
following motions — besides those before mentioned — and in 
the order in which they are named : 

477. To postpone to a fixed day or hour ; whereupon the 
meeting agrees to consider it at that time ; and when the 
time arrives the presiding officer's duty is to suspend other 
business, and lay that before the House. 

478. Or to commit — which means to refer it to a commit- 
tee for consideration, which committee is expected to report 
upon it to the House, at its own convenience, or upon the 
order of the House. The business of legislative bodies in 
this country is too much referred to committees, as I have 
pointed out to you above ; and it is common to see a meas- 
ure referred to a committee merely to get it permanently 



158 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

out of the way. Of the duties of committees I shall speak 
further on. 

479. Or to amend : If the member who introduced the bill 
or resolution accepts the amendment, it is at once incorpo- 
rated in his bill ; if he rejects it, it becomes a separate part 
of the question, and the House votes upon it before it does 
on the bill. It is possible to amend an amendment (but hot 
to amend that again) ; but it ought to be avoided, and the 
friends of a measure can agree privately beforehand upon 
amendments. Sometimes its enemies try to kill it by amend- 
ments. 

480. Or, finally, to postpone it indefinitely. In a legisla- 
tive assembly the motion to lay on the table is practically 
equivalent to this, and is so used ; and in the House of Eep- 
resentativcs, when a bill has been passed, in order to prevent 
an opponent from moving a reconsideration — which would 
bring it again before the House — it is customary for the 
mover of the bill himself to move that the vote by which it 
was just passed be reconsidered, and to move to lay that mo- 
tion on the table. 

481. If you consider the matter you will see that the order 
of these motions, as prescribed in the rules, is founded on 
common-sense, and a desire to enable an assembly to transact 
business without improper delays. 

482. To prevent undue haste, on the other hand, legislative 
bodies usually require a bill to be read three times, and often 
on three separate days ; measures are referred to committees 
for examination ; and on the final reading the bill is debated, 
unless the majority insists on the previous question. The 
reference of a measure to two Houses, and after its passage 
by both to the President or Governor, is also a measure of 
delay of great importance, because it gives time for thorough 
consideration. 

483. Committees are composed of selected members of the 
assembly ; and they are either appointed or elected, and for a 
special object. They may be permanent, or temporary and 
special. Their meetings, unless otherwise ordered, are private r 



DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES. 159 

so far as the public is concerned; but it is beld that any 
member of the assembly of which they are a part may attend 
their meetings. The first person named on the committee is 
usually its chairman ; and if a member moves the appoint- 
ment of a committee, it is customary to name him as one of 
its members, and to make him its chairman, unless reasons 
exist against that. The committee reports by its chairman, 
and the conclusions of the majority form the report. The 
minority of the committee have no right to make a report ; 
but this is usually allowed, because they could bring their 
views before the House and the public in other ways. Where 
the assembly is divided on a measure, members of both sides 
should be appointed in equal numbers, giving the chairman 
to the majority ; and thus giving an extra vote in the com- 
mittee to that side. 

484. Legislatures and other permanent bodies sometimes 
resolve the whole assembly into a committee, called the 
" Committee of the Whole." It is done on motion by a 
member, and for the consideration, usually, of a particular 
subject. When the House goes into Committee of the 
Whole, the Speaker or presiding officer leaves the chair, 
calling a member to take his place. The presiding officer 
may take the floor in the committee, and take part in the 
debate. The Committee of the Whole can not conclude 
any business, and can not adjourn. When it has completed 
the discussion of a bill, or is ready to cease for that time, a 
member moves " that the committee do now rise," whereupon 
the Speaker resumes his place, and his substitute in the com- 
mittee reports to him briefly but formally what the commit- 
tee has done, thus officially informing him of the stage at 
which the business was left. If the bill under consideration 
is ready for a vote, and that fact is reported, the Speaker may 
then bring it to . a vote without further delay. If the House 
while in Committee of the Whole desires to adjourn, it rises ; 
but only after the chairman has reported progress to the 
Speaker is a motion to adjourn in order. While in com- 
mittee, there is no need to use the previous question to stop 



160 POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 

debate, as the majority need only vote that the committee 
rise, when the debate stands adjourned, and the reconstituted 
House takes up other business. The object of going into 
Committee of the Whole is to be easily rid of those rules 
which otherwise limit debate, and to make discussion freer. 
In Committee of the Whole there is no limit to debate. 

485. When a bill or resolution is introduced, if the assem- 
bly is willing it may then be discussed, and in the debate the 
mover has the right to address the House first. In debate 
the friends and opponents of the question should have the 
floor alternately, and it is usual for the mover to close the 
debate. No one is expected to speak more than once on the 
same question or bill. 

486. In debate the speakers should confine themselves rig- 
orously to the question ; and if any one wanders away in his 
remarks to other matters, he may properly be called to order 
by the presiding officer on the request of a member. All per- 
sonalities should be avoided ; and to assist in this, it is a rule 
that no member shall, in debate, be called or spoken of by his 
name. In legislative bodies this rule is very rigidly adhered 
to ; and in the British House of Commons, when the Speaker 
calls a member to order, and has difficulty in procuring order, 
by an old tradition, his last resort is a threat to " call the 
gentleman by name." As this threat has always been effect- 
ive, I believe it is not known what would be the result if it 
were actually carried into effect. 

487. In recognizing those who wish to speak during a de- 
bate, the presiding officer exercises a certain liberty of choice ; 
but he must take care to be fair to both sides. If the debate 
is important, and comes up after notice, members often private- 
ly inform the presiding officer that they desire to speak ; and 
he then makes a list of their names, and may properly arrange 
them in the order of their abilities if he wishes ; taking care, 
however, that both sides are fairly represented. He then rec- 
ognizes among those who rise to obtain the floor those on his 
list, and may give private notice to each beforehand when his 
turn is at hand. • 



DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES. 161 

488. The assembly may limit debaters to a specified time, 
giving each five or ten minntes, or half an hour ; and it may, 
by unanimous consent, extend the time of any speaker who 
has not completed his remarks, and whom it wishes to hear. 
But such a favor must be by unanimous consent. 

489. When the measure comes to a vote the presiding officer 
should clearly state it, and he then adds, " Those who are in 
favor of this will vote Aye, the contrary, No." And he should 
be very particular to put the question so that every member 
may understand the bearing or effect of his vote upon the 
question. 

490. Those only may vote who are within the proper limits 
of the meeting when their names are called. If, for instance, 
a part only of the hall is reserved for the meeting, and the re- 
mainder for an audience, a member standing without the bar- 
riers of separation has no right to vote. 

491. Finally, remember that one of the main and most im- 
portant objects of a deliberative assembly is to debate. It is 
not a merit, but a fault, in such an assembly to hastily adopt 
a number of measures prepared beforehand by a committee 
or caucus ; it is far better, more conducive to a proper under- 
standing of the business in hand, and to the public welfare in 
the case of conventions and other public meetings, that the 
measures proposed should be discussed, even if apparently 
time should be thus lost. When a party convention meets 
in these days, it is too often a mere recording body. Its 
business is prepared by committees, whose members are 
oftenest selected beforehand ; and when these bring in their 
reports, they are at once adopted, and this is supposed to be 
a declaration of the will of the people. But you can see 
that it is only a cheat. The delegates are not really con- 
sulted. It would be far better, more conducive to party 
harmony and the public good, if debate were expected and 
took place. 

492. I have aimed to give you only such a brief outline of 
the rules in accordance with which meetings should be con- 
ducted as will let you understand the general principles ; and 

11 



162 



POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 



references to Congressional and other rules are only to illus- 
trate these statements. Legislative bodies are guided in in- 
tricate cases by formal precedents, which are stated in large 
books, such as Barclay's Digest ; works which are not only 
important to legislators, but interesting as showing the growth 
of what are called Parliamentary rules* 



APPENDIX, 



I. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Questions on the Constitution of the United States. 

II. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
III. WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Preamble. 

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
tmion, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- 
mon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of lib- 
erty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitu- 
tion for the United States of America. 

ARTICLE I. Legislative Department. 

Section I. Congress in General. 

All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of 
the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

Section II. House of Representatives. 

Clause 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of mem- 
bers chosen every second year by the people of the several states ; and 
the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for elect- 
ors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. 

Clause 2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have at- 
tained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of 
the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of 
that state in which he shall be chosen. 

Clause 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among 
the several states which may be included within this Union, according 
to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the 
whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term 
of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other per- 
sons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after 
the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every 
subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. 
The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thou- 
sand, but each state shall have at least one representative; and until 
such enumeration shall be made, the state of New Hampshire shall be 
entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Provi- 
dence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, 
Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North 
Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

Clause 4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any 
state, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill 
such vacancies. 

Clause 5. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and 
other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 



166 APPENDIX. 

Section III. Senate. 

Clause 1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two 
senators from each state, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six years, 
and each senator shall have one vote. 

Clause 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence 
of the first election, they shall be divided, as equally as maybe, into three 
classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at 
the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration 
of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth 
year, so that one third may be chosen every second year; and if vacan- 
cies happen, by resignation or otherwise, during the recess of the Legis- 
lature of any state, the executive thereof may make temporary appoint- 
ments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such 
vacancies. 

Clause 3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to 
the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, 
and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which 
he shall be chosen. 

Clause 4. The Vice-president of the United States shall be President 
of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

Clause 5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a pres- 
ident pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice-president, or when he shall 
exercise the office of President of the United States. 

Clause G. The Senate shall have the scle pt wer to try all impeach- 
ments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirma- 
tion. When the President of the United States is tried, the chief jus- 
tice shall preside ; and no person shall be convicted without the concur- 
rence of two thirds of the members present. 

Clause 7. Judgment in case of impeachment shall not extend farther 
than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any 
office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States ; but the party 
convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, 
judgment, and punishment according to law. 

Section IV. Both Houses. 

Clause 1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for sen- 
ators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the Legisla- 
ture thereof; but the Congress may at any time, by law, make or alter 
such regulations, except as to the place of choosing senators. 

Clause 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and 
such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall 
by law appoint a different day. 

Section V. The Houses separately. 

Clause 1. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and 
qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute 
a quorum to do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day 
to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent mem- 
bers, in such manner and under such penalties as each house may provide. 

Clause 2. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, pun- 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 167 

fsh its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two 
thirds, expel a member, 

Clause 3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from 
time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judg- 
ment require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the members of either 
house, on any question, shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, 
be entered on the journal. 

Clause 4. Neither house during the session of Congress shall, without 
the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any 
other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting, 

Section VI. Disabilities of Members. 

Clause 1. The senators and representatives shall receive a compensa- 
tion for their sendees, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treas- 
ury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony, 
and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance 
at the session of their respective houses, and in going to or returning from 
the same ; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not 
be questioned in any other place. 

Clause 2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which 
he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the 
United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof 
shall have been increased, during such time ; and no person holding any 
office under the United States shall be a member of either house during 
his continuance in office. 

Section YII. Mode of passing Laws. 

Clause 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of 
representatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amend- 
ments, as on other bills. 

Clause 2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Represent- 
atives and the Senate shall, before it become a law, be presented to the 
President of the United States ; if he approve, he shall sign it ; but if 
not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall 
have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, 
and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two thirds 
of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with 
the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsid- 
ered, and if approved by two thirds of that house, it shall become a law. 
But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas 
and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill 
shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill 
shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays except- 
ed) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in 
like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjourn- 
ment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 

Clause 3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of 
the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a 
question of adjournment), shall be presented to the President of the 
United States ; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved 
by him, or, being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of 



168 APPENDIX. 

the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and lim- 
itations prescribed in the case of a bill. 

Section VIII. Powers granted to Congress. 

The Congress shall have power — 

Clause 1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay 
the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the 
United States ; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform 
throughout the United States ; 

Clause 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

Clause 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the 
several states, and with the Indian tribes ; 

Clause 4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform 
laws on the subject of bankruptcies, throughout the United States; 

Clause 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign 
coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures ; 

Clause G. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securi- 
ties and current coin of the United States; 

Clause 7. To establish post-offices and post-roads; 

Clause 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by se- 
curing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to 
their respective writings and discoveries: 

Clause 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 

Clause 10. To define and punish felonies committed on the high seas, 
and offenses against the law of nations ; 

Clause 11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and 
make rules concerning captures on land and water; 

Clause 12. To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of mon- 
ey to that use shall be for a longer term than two years ; 

Clause 13. To provide and maintain a navy; 

Clause 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the 
land and naval forces ; 

Clause 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws 
of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions ; 

Clause 16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the 
militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the 
service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively the ap- 
pointment of tbe officers and the authority of training the militia accord- 
ing to the discipline prescribed by Congress ; 

Clause 17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, 
over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of 
particular states and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of gov- 
ernment of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places 
purchased, by the consent of the Legislature of the state in which the 
same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, 
and other needful buildings ; and, 

Clause 18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for 
carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested 
by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any 
department or officer thereof. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 169 



Section IX. Powers denied to the United States. 

Clause 1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the 
states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by 
the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight; 
but a tax or duty mry be imposed on such importation, not exceeding 
ten dollars for each person. 

Clause 2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be sus- 
pended unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety 
may require it. 

Clause 3. No bill of attainder, or ex-post-facto law, shall be passed. 

Clause 4. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in pro- 
portion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. 

Clause 5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any 
state. 

Clause 6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce 
or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another ; nor shall ves- 
sels bound to or from one state be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties 
in another. 

Clause 7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in conse- 
quence of appropriations made by law ; and a regular statement and ac- 
count of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be pub- 
lished from time to time. 

Clause 8. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States ; 
and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, with- 
out the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, 
or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. 

Section X. Powers denied to the States. 

Clause 1. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confedera- 
tion ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of 
credit ; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of 
debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex-post-facto law, or law impairing the 
obligation of contracts ; or grant any title of nobility. 

Clause 2. No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any 
imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely 
necessary for executing its inspection laws : and the net produce of all 
duties and imposts laid by any state on imports or exports shall be for the 
use of the treasury of the United States ; and all such laws shall be sub- 
ject to the revision and control of the Congress. 

Clause 3. No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty 
of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any 
agreement or compact with another state or with a foreign power, or en- 
gage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will 
not admit of delays. 

AETICLE II. Executive Depaetmewt. 

Section I. President and Vice-president. 

Clause 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the 
United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of 

H 



lVO APPENDIX. 

four years, and, together with the Vice-president, chosen for the same 
term, he elected as follows: 

Clause 2. Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature 
thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of 
senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled in the 
Congress ; but no senator or representative, or person holding an office 
of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

[Clause 3. The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote 
by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabit- 
ant of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a list of all 
the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each ; which list 
they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of the govern- 
ment of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The 
President of tlie Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of 
Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be count- 
ed. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the Presi- 
dent, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors ap- 
pointed ; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and 
have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall 
immediately choose by ballot one of them for President ; and if no person 
have a majority, then, from the five highest on the list, the said House 
shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the Presi- 
dent, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state 
having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or 
members from two thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states 
shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the 
President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors 
shall be the Vice-president. But if there should remain two or more 
who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the 
Vice-president.*] 

Clause 4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the elect- 
ors, and the day on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be 
the same throughout the United States. 

Clause 5. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the 
United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be 
eligible to the office of President ; neither shall any person be eligible to 
that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and 
been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 

Clause 6. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his 
death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the 
said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-president ; and the Con- 
gress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or 
inability, both of the President and Vice-president, declaring what officer 
shall then act as President ; and such officer shall act accordingly, until 
the disability be removed. or a President shall be elected. 

Clause 7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a 
compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the 
period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within 
that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them. 

* Altered by the 12th Amendment. See page 176. 



CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. l7l 

Clause 8, Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take 
the following oath or affirmation : 

" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the of- 
fice of President of the United States, and will, to the hest of my ability, 
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. " 

Section II. Powers of the President. 

Clause 1. The President shall he commander-in-chief of the army and 
navy of the United States and of the militia of the several states, when 
called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the 
opinion in writing of the principal officer in each of the executive depart- 
ments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices ; 
and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses 
against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

Clause 2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of 
the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators present 
concur ; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent 
of the Senate shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and con- 
suls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United 
States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and 
which shall be established by law ; but the Congress may by law vest the 
appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in the Presi- 
dent alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

Clause 3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that 
may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, 
which shall expire at the end of their next session. 

Section III. Duties of the President. 

He shall, from time to time, give to the Congress information of the 
state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as 
he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occa- 
sions, convene both houses, or either of them; and in case of disagreement 
between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn 
them to such time as he shall think proper ; he shall receive ambassadors 
and other public ministers ; he shall take care that the laws be faithfull* 
executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States. 

Section IV. Impeachment of the President. 

The President, Vice-president, and all civil officers of the United States, 
shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of trea* 
son, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III. Judicial Depaetment. 

Section I. United States Courts. 

The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme 
Court, and in such inferior courts as Congress may from time to time or- 
dain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, 
shall hold their offices during good behavior ; and shall, at stated times, 
receive for their services a compensation, which shall not be diminished 
during their continuance in office. 



172 APPENDIX. 



Section II. Jurisdiction of the United States Courts. 

Clause 1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equi- 
ty arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and 
treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority ; to all cases 
affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls ; to all cases 
of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the 
United States shall be a party ; to controversies between two or more 
states ; between a state and citizens of another state ; between citizens 
of different states ; between citizens of the same state claiming lands un- 
der grants of different states; and between a state, or the citizens there- 
of, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects.* 

Clause 2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers 
and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court 
shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, 
the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and 
fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress 
shall make. 

Clause 8. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall 
be by jury ; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes 
shall have been committed ; but when not committed within any state, 
the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law 
have directed. 

Section III. Treason. 

Clause 1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levy- 
ing war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid 
and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the tes- 
timony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open 
court. 

Clause 2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of 
treason ; but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or 
forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted. 

ARTICLE IV. 

Section I. State Records. 

Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, rec- 
ords, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Congress 
may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, 
and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

Section II. Privileges of Citizens, etc. 

Clause 1. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges 
and immunities of citizens in the several states. 

Clause 2. A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other 
crime, who shall flee from justice and be found in another state, shall, on 
demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be de- 
livered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime. 

* Altered by the 11th Amendment. See page 176. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 173 

Clause 3. No person held to service or labor in one state, under the 
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or 
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be 
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be 
due. 

Section III. New States and Territories. 

Clause 1. New states may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; 
but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any 
other state ; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, 
or parts of states, without the consent of the Legislatures of the states con- 
cerned, as well as of the Congress. 

Clause 2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all 
needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property 
belonging to the United States ; and nothing in this Constitution shall be 
so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of any 
particular state. 

Section IV. Guarantee to the States. 

The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a repub- 
lican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion ; 
and, on application of the Legislature, or of the executive (when the Leg- 
islature can not be convened), against domestic violence. 

ARTICLE V. Power of Amendment. 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it neces- 
sary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the applica- 
tion of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a con- 
vention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to 
all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the 
Legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in 
three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be 
proposed by Congress ; provided, that no amendment which may be made 
prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any man- 
ner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first Ar- 
ticle; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its 
equal suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. Public Debt, Supremacy of the Constitution, Oath of Of- 
fice, Religious Test. 

Clause 1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into before 
the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United 
States under this Constitution as under the Confederation. 

Clause 2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which 
shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall 
be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme 
law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, 
any thing in the Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary not- 
withstanding. 

Clause 3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the 



174 



APPENDIX. 



members of the several state Legislatures, and all executive arid judicial 
officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound 
by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but no religious test 
shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under 
the United States. 

ARTICLE VII. Ratification of the Constitution. 

The ratification of the Conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for 
the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratifying the 
same. 

Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the states present, the 
seventeenth day of September, in the year of .our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United 
States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof, we have hereunto 
subscribed our names. 

George Washington, President and Deputy from Virginia. 



Lang- 



Gor- 



New Hampshire. — John 
don, Nicholas Gilman. 

Massachusetts. — Nathaniel 
ham, Rufus King. 

Connecticut. — Wm. Samuel John- 
son, Roger Sherman. 

New York. — Alexander Hamil- 
ton. 

New Jersey. — William Living- 
ston, William Patterson, David 
Brearley, Jonathan Dayton. 

Pennsylvania. — Benjamin Frank- 
lin, Robert Morris, Thomas Fitzsim- 
ons, James Wilson, Thomas Mifflin, 
George Clymer, Jared Ingersoll, 
Gouverneur Morris. 

Attest, 



Delaware. — George Read, John 
Dickinson, Jacob Broom, Gunning 
Bedford, Jr., Richard Bassett. 

Maryland. — James M'Hen~v, 
Daniel' Carroll, Daniel of St. Tho. 
Jenifer. 

Virginia. — John Blair, Jas. Mad- 
ison, Jr. 

NorthCarolina.— William Blount, 
Hugh Williamson, Richard Dobbs 
Spaight. 

South Carolina. — John Rutledge, 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Pierce 
Butler. 

Georgia. — William Few, Abra- 
ham Baldwin. 

William Jackson, Secretary. 



AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

Article I. Freedom of Religion, etc. 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, 
or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to 
petition the government for a redress of grievances. 

Article II. Right to bear Arms. 

A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, 
the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 175 

Article III. Quartering Soldiers on Citizens. 

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without 
the consent of the owner ; nor in time of war, but in a manner to be pre* 
scribed by law. 

Article IV. Search Warrants. 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, 
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be vio- 
lated ; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by 
oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, 
and the persons or things to be seized. 

Article V. Trial for Crinie, etc. 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous 
crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in 
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in active 
service in time of war or public danger ; nor shall any person be subject 
for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall 
be compelled, in any ci^minal case, to be a witness against himself ; nor 
be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor 
shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. 

Article VI. Rights of accused Persons. 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a 
speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district 
wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have 
been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and 
cause of the accusation ; to be- confronted with the witnesses against him ; 
to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor ; and to 
have the assistance of counsel for his defense. 

Article VII. Suits at Common Law. 

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed 
twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved ; and no fact 
tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United 
States than according to the rules of the common law. 

Article VIII. Excessive Bail. 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor 
cruel and unusual punishment inflicted. 

_ Article IX. 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be con- 
strued to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

Article X. 

The powers not granted to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to 
the people. 



176 APPENDIX. 



Article XL 

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend 
to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the 
United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any 
foreign state. 

Article XII. Mode of choosing the President and Vice-president. 

Clause 1. The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote 
by ballot for President and Vice-president, one of whom, at least, shall 
not bean inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name 
in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots 
the person voted for as Vice-president ; and they shall make distinct lists 
of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice- 
president, and of the number of votes for each, which list they shall sign 
and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of government of the United 
States, directed to the President of the Senate ; the President of the Sen- 
ate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted ; the person 
having the greatest number of votes for Presidenf shall be the President, 
if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; 
and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the 
highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as 
President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately by bal- 
lot the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be 
taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a 
quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two 
thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to 
a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a Presi- 
dent, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the 
fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-president shall act 
as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability 
of the President. 

Clause 2. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice- 
president shall be the Vice-president, if such number be a majority of 
the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majori- 
ty, then from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose 
the Vice-president ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds 
of the whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole number 
shall be necessary to a choice. 

Clause 3. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of 
President shall be eligible to that of Vice-president of the United States. 

Article XIII. 

Clause 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a 
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, 
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdic- 
tion. 

Clause 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by ap* 
propriate legislation. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 177 



Article XIV. 

Clause 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and 
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and 
of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any 
law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the 
United States ; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or 
property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its 
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

Clause 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several 
states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number 
of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right 
to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice- 
president of the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive 
and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the Legislature thereof, 
is denied to any of the male members of such state, being twenty-one years 
of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except 
for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation 
therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male 
citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years 
of age in such state. 

Clause 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, 
or elector of President and Vice-president, or hold any office, civil or 
military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previ- 
ously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the 
United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an execu- 
tive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the 
United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the 
same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, 
by a vote of two thirds of each house, remove such disability. 

Clause 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, au- 
thorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and 
bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be 
questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or 
pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion 
against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of 
any slave ; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal 
and void. 

Clause 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate 
legislation the provisions of this article. 

Article XV. 

Clause 1. The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall 
not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account 
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Clause 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate 
legislation the provisions of this article. 
12 H 2 



178 APPENDIX. 



QUESTIONS ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

PREAMBLE. 

Who adopted the Constitution? Why a "more perfect union?" More per. 
feet than what? 

ARTICLE I. 

Sect. /.—How is the Congress composed ? 

Sect. II.— 1. How long does a Representative serve? What are the qualifica- 
tions of voters for Representatives ? 

2. What are the qualifications of a Representative ? 

3. Explain the ratio of representation. 

4. In case of the resignation or death of a Representative, how is the vacancy 
filled? Why does not the Governor appoint a successor? (Ans. Because he is 
to represent directly the people, and must therefore be chosen directly by them.) 

5. How are the officers of the House of Representatives chosen? 

Sect irr.—l. How are Senators chosen ? What therefore do they represent ? 
For how long arc they chosen ? 

2. Who appoints Senators to fill a vacancy? Why are one third of the Senate 
chosen every second year ? 

3. What are the qualifications of a Senator ? 

4. Who presides over the Senate ? 

5. What is the office of the President pro tempore? 

0. When is the Senate a court of justice? Who presides when the President 
of the United States is tried ? Why not the Vice-President ? 

7. What are the limitations to the power of the Senate in impeachment? 
What is the meaning of impeachment? Explain the respective powers of the 
House of Representatives and of the Senate in this matter. 

Sect IV.— 1. May Congress impose on the states a uniform method of choosing 
Representatives ? And of Senators ? 

2. How long does a Congress last ? How often must it assemble ? May it hold 
a continuous session ? (Ans. Yes.) On what day must it meet ? On what day 
does it cease to exist? May a new Congress meet as soon as the previous one 
adjourns ? (Ans. Yes.) 

Sect V.—l. What is a quorum ? Who judges of the qualifications and election 
of the members of either House ? Can either House compel the attendance of 
members ? Why has it this power ? 

2. Who determines the rules ? 

3. Have both Houses power to make part of their journals secret ? Why are 
the yeas and nays to be entered on the Journal ? 

4. Why may not one House adjourn for more than three days, or to another 
place, during the session ? 

Sect. VI— 1. Why are members privileged from arrest? Why exempt from 
question elsewhere for words spoken in debate ? What does this exemption 
mean? (Ans. It preserves the member from suits for libel and slander, and 
other penal proceedings, for words spoken in his place, and thus secures him 
the utmost liberty of speech.) 

2. What is the object of this clause ? 

Sect. VII.— 1. Where are revenue bills originated ? Why ? 

2. State the authorities who must approve a bill before it becomes a law. 
What happens if the President objects ? How long may the President consider 
a bill? 

3. Must all bills be presented to him ? 

Sect VIII. — What is the limitation to the power of Congress to levy taxes ? 
Recite the chief powers conferred on Congress in this section. In exercising 



QUESTIONS ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 179 

these powers, how is Congress guided ? (Ans. First, by the provisions of the 
Constitution ; and, secondly, by the will of the people, which it represents.) What 
is the object of the last clause of this section ? (Ans. It conclusively confers 
power on Congress to pass all laws necessary to carry into effect the measures it 
has determined on.) 
Sect. IX.— 1. To what persons does this clause refer ? 

2. Explain the meaning of habeas corpus. 

3. What is an ex post facto law ? Why is it prohibited ? 

4. What is a capitation tax ? Why is it so limited ? 

5. What is the effect of this clause ? (Ans. It secures absolute freedom of com- 
mercial intercourse between the different states.) 

6. What is the effect of this clause ? 

7. What is the object of this clause ? 

8. What is the object of this clause ? 

Sect. X.— 1. Why are the prohibitions declared in this clause? (Ans. Be- 
cause such acts, if performed by states, would cause confusion, and make a less 
instead of a "more perfect union.") 

2 and 3. Why these prohibitions? (Ans. Because the acts prohibited to the 
states would, if attempted, interfere with the supreme authority of the Federal 
Government within the limits assigned to it in Section VIII.) 

ARTICLE II. 
Sect. I.—l. What is the Executive power? Explain why Congress can not be 
called an executive power. Who is the Executive head ? 

2. What is the number of the Electors ? Why are Federal officers prohibited 
from serving as Electors ? 

3. (For the manner of electing the President and Vice-President, see the 12th 
Amendment.) 

4. Is the time of choosing Electors uniform all over the United States ? Why 
should it be ? What is the day ? 

5. Who may be elected President? 

6. Who succeeds the President in case of his death or removal? (Ans. In case 
of the death of both President and Vice-President, Congress has provided, by 
a law adopted in 1T92, that the President of the Senate shall be acting Presi- 
dent until a new election shall be held, which the Secretary of State is ordered 
to call.) 

7. Why is the salary of the President fixed during his term ? 

8. State what the President promises in his oath of office. 

Sect. II.— 1. Why is the President made commander-in-chief of the armies, 
navy, and militia in time of war? (Ans. In order that all the powers of the 
Federal Government may be wielded by a single hand effectively for a single 
purpose. Remember that the Congress may, if it pleases, deny him an army or 
a navy.) Why may he require the opinion in writing of the heads of depart- 
ments ? Why should he not pardon or reprieve in cases of impeachment ? 
(Ans. Because impeachment is usually for malfeasance in office, and works only 
removal and incapacity to hold office.) 

2. Who makes treaties ? If the Senate rejects a treaty, does it fall ? Why 
should the President nominate his subordinates ? 

3. When vacancies happen during a recess of the Senate, how are they filled ? 
Sect. III.— What are the documents called in which the President gives to 

Congress information, and advises them ? Why may he convene both Houses ? 
May he convene only one ? Is he responsible for the faithful execution or en- 
forcement of the laws ? 

Sect. iT. —For what offenses may civil officers be removed from office, and 
how? 



180 APPENDIX. 

ARTICLE III. 

Sect. /.—How is the judicial power of the United States composed ? For what 
period do the judges hold office ? Who appoints them ? (See Art, II., Sect. II.) 
Why should not their salaries be diminished ? (Ans. Because they have to in- 
terpret the laws ; and, in doing so, might excite the hostility of Congress, which 
might, if it had the power, punish them by lessening their salaries.) 

Sect. II. — 1. Trace out the powers of United States Courts. Do they adjudicate 
on state laws ? (Aiis. Only so far as to declare whether they are or are not in 
violation of the Federal Constitution.) 

2. What is the meaning of original and appellate jurisdiction ? 

3. Why should trials of crimes be within the states where they are committed! 
Sect. Ill— I. What is treason ? 

2. What is corruption of blood ? What is forfeiture ? 

ARTICLE IV. 

Sect I. — Why was this provision enacted ? 

Sect. II— 1. Has a citizen of New York the same privileges in Ohio or Loui- 
siana as a citizen of those states ? Why is this necessary ? 

2. Why must the Governor of a state demand, in another state, the surrender 
of a criminal or person charged with crime? (Ans. Because constant disorders 
and abuses would occur if irresponsible police officers of one state might go 
into another to make arrests.) 

3. To what class of persons did this paragraph refer? 

Sect. TII.—l. On what condition may new states be formed? Why these 
limitations ? 

2. Does Congress govern the territories? What property has the United 
States ? Is its authority supreme over forts, arsenals, light-houses, etc. ? 

Sect. IV.— What must the Federal Government guarantee a state? Against 
what must it protect it? Why the limitation as to its power to repress "do- 
mestic violence" in a state ? (Ans. To force the Governor and Legislature of a 
state to use to the utmost their own legal authority before calling on the Fed- 
eral Government, and thus to invigorate the local governments.) 

ARTICLE V. 

How are ameudmonts to the Constitution proposed? How adopted? Why 
was the limitation as to equal suffrage in the Senate adopted? Is it wise to 
make the method of amendment as cumbrous as it is ? If so, why ? 

ARTICLE VI. 

1. To what does this clause refer ? 

2. What constitutes the supreme law of the laud ? Must we obey a Federal 
law, even if a state law forbids it ? 

3. Who must swear to obey the Constitution ? 

ARTICLE VII. 
Was the Constitution ratified by all the states ? How many states were need- 
ed to ratify it ? 

AMENDMENTS. 

ARTICLE I. 

State the three supreme rights of the people protected by this article. 

ARTICLE II. 
Does a law prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons violate this pro 
vision ? Why not ? 



QUESTIONS ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 181 

ARTICLE III. 
Why was this provision advisable ? 

ARTICLE IV. 

What are unreasonable searches and seizures ? What are the three necessary 
elements of a warrant of arrest, under this article ? What is the meaning of 
warrant ? Why should the power of arrest be thus guarded ? Take the reverse 
of each limitation, and examine what power it would give to an officer. 

ARTICLE V. 
Why are persons in the army and navy, and in the militia in time of war, ex- 
cepted from the safeguard of preliminary indictment by Grand Jury ? What is 
the office of a Grand Jury ? Why should not a person be twice tried for the 
same offense ? What is due process of law ? 

ARTICLE VI. 

State the guards specified in this article. Why are these provisions important 
to the liberty of the citizen ? (The teacher should make the class intelligently 
explain the necessity for each separate provision ; as, Why should a trial be 
speedy ? Why public ? An excellent way to do this is to let them reverse every 
proposition.) 

ARTICLE VII. 

What is the right guarded by this article ? 

ARTICLE VIII. 

What rights are here guarded? 

ARTICLES IX., X. 
What are the objects of these articles ? 

ARTICLE XI. 
What previous article of the Constitution does this Amendment define ? 

ARTICLE XII. 

Describe the manner of electing the President and Vice-President. 

1. If there should be more than two candidates for President, is a majority 
over all required ? Who elects if the Electors fail ? Why must the House act 
immediately t How are the votes taken ? How many votes has each state ? 
What happens if the House of Representatives does not elect ? 

2. Who elects the Vice-President if the Electors fail ? 

3. Who may be elected Vice-President ? 

ARTICLE XIII. 

What is the object of this article ? 

ARTICLE XIV. 

1. Who are citizens of the United States ? 

2. What is the object of this clause ? 

3 and 4. What is the object of these clauses ? 

ARTICLE XV. 

What right does this article confer on citizens ? Does it prohibit a state from 
adopting an educational qualification for the suffrage ? What is it intended to 
guard against ? 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OJ 
AMERICA, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, JULY 4, 177G. 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one 
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with 
another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and 
equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle 
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they 
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident — that all men are created 
equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 
rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; 
that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, de- 
riving their just powers from the consent of the governed ; that, when- 
ever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the 
right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new govern- 
ment, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers 
in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and 
happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long estab- 
lished should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and, accord- 
ingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suf- 
fer, while evils are sufterable, than to right themselves by abolishing the 
forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses 
and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design 
to ?educe them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty 
to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future 
security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and 
such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former sys- 
tems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is 
a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct object, 
the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove 
this, let facts be submitted to a candid world : 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary 
for the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing 
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be ob- 
tained ; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large dis- 
tricts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of repre- 
sentation in the Legislature — a right inestimable to them, and formidable 
to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfort- 
able, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole 
purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing with 
manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 183 

to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, 
have returned to the people at large for their exercise ; the state remain- 
ing, in the mean time, exposed to all the danger of invasion from with- 
out and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states ; for that 
purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to 
pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions 
of new appropriations of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his assent 
to laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their 
offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of 
officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the 
consent of our Legislature. 

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to 
the civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to 
our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to 
their acts of pretended legislation : 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us : 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any mur- 
ders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states : 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world : 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent : 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury : 

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses : 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring prov- 
ince, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its 
boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for 
introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies : 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and 
altering fundamentally the powers of our governments : 

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invest- 
ed with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protec- 
tion, and waging war against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and 
destroyed the lives of our people. 

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to 
complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with 
circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most bar- 
barous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, 
to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their 
friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored 
to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, 
whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, 
sexes, and conditions. 



184 



APPENDIX. 



In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress in 
the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only 
by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every 
act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We 
have warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their Legis- 
lature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have re- 
minded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. 
We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have 
conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usur- 
pations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspond- 
ence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguini- 
ty. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our 
separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind— enemies in 
war, in peace friends. 

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in 
General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world 
for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority 
of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare that 
these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent 
states ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, 
and that all political connection between them and the state of Great 
Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as free and inde- 
pendent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract 
alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which 
independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declara- 
tion, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mu- 
tually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 

The foregoing declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed, and 

John Hancock. 



signed by the following members : 

New Hampshire. — Josiah Bart- 
lett, William Whipple, Matthew 
Thornton. 

Massachusetts Bay. — Samuel Ad- 
ams, John Adams, Robert Treat 
Paine, Elbridge Gerry. 

Rhode Island. — Stephen Hopkins, 
William Ellery. 

Connecticut. — Roger Sherman, 
Samuel Huntington, William Wil- 
liams, Oliver Wolcott. 

New York.— William Floyd, Phil- 
ip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis 
Morris. 

New Jersey. — Richard Stock- 
ton, John Witherspoon, Francis 
Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham 
Clark. - 

Pennsylvania. — Robert Morris, 
Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, 



John Morton, George Clymer, James 
Smith, George Taylor, James Wil- 
son, George Ross. 

Delaware. — Caesar Rodney, 
George Read, Thomas M'Kean. 

Maryland. — Samuel Chase, Wil- 
liam Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles 
Carroll, of Carrollton. 

Virginia. — George Wythe, Rich- 
ard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, 
Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, 
Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter 
Braxton. 

North Carolina. — William Hoop- 
er, Joseph Hewes, John Penn. 

South Carolina. — Edward Rut- 
ledge, Thomas Heyw r ard, Jr., Thom- 
as Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton. 

Georgia. — Button Gwinnett, Ly- 
man Hall, George Walton. 



WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

(September 17, 1T9T.) 



Feiends and Fellow-Citizens : — The period for a new election of 
a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States 
being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts 
must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with 
that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may con- 
duce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now 
apprise you of the resolution I have formed to decline being considered 
among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made. 

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that 
this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the con- 
siderations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to 
his country ; and that, in withdrawing the tender of service, which si- 
lence, in my situation, might imply, I am influenced by no diminution 
of zeal for your future interest ; no deficiency of grateful respect for 
your past kindness ; but am supported by a full conviction that the step 
is compatible with both. 

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which 
your suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of 
inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what appeared 
to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much 
earlier in my power, consistently with motives w T hich I was not at lib- 
erty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been 
reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous 
to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to 
declare it to you ; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and crit- 
ical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous ad- 
vice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the 
idea. 

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, 
no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the senti- 
ment of duty or propriety ; and am persuaded, whatever partiality may 
be retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances of out 
country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire. 

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were 
explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will 
only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed toward the or- 
ganization and administration of the government the best exertions of 
which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious, in the 
outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, 
perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to 



ISO APPENDIX. 

diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years ad- 
monishes me, more and more, that the shade of retirement is as neces- 
sary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that, if any circumstances 
have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have 
the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence inyite me to 
quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the 
career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the 
deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my be- 
loved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more 
for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for 
the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable 
attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness 
unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these 
services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instruct- 
ive example in our annals that, under circumstances in which the pas- 
sions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amid appear- 
ances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in 
situations in which, not [infrequently, want of success has countenanced 
the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential 
pro]) of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans, by which they were 
effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me 
to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may 
continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union 
and brotherly affection may be perpetual ; that the free Constitution, 
which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained ; that its 
administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and 
virtue ; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under 
the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a preserva- 
tion and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the 
glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption 
of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop ; but a solicitude for your welfare, 
which can not end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, 
natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to 
offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent 
review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no 
inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the 
permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you 
with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested 
warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive 
to bias his counsel ; nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your 
indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar 
occasion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, 
no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attach- 
ment. 

The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also 
now dear to you. It is justly so ; for it is a main pillar in the edifice 
of your real independence ; the support of your tranquillity at home, 
your peace abroad ; of your safety ; of your prosperity ; of that very 



Washington's farewell address. 187 

liberty which you so highly prize. But, as it is easy to foresee, that, 
from different causes, and from different quarters, much pains will be 
taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction 
of this truth ; as this is the point in your political fortress against which 
the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly 
and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of in- 
finite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of 
your National Union to your collective and individual happiness ; that 
you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to 
it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium 
of your political safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation 
with jealous anxiety ; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a 
suspicion that it can, in any event, be abandoned ; and indignantly 
frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any por- 
tion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which 
now link together the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Cit- 
izens, by birth or choice, of a common countiy, that country has a right 
to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs 
to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of pa- 
triotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. 
With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, 
habits, and political principles. You have, in a common cause, fought 
and triumphed together : the independence and liberty you possess are 
the work of joint councils and joint efforts, of common dangers, suffer- 
ings, and successes. 

But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves 
to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more 
immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds 
the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the 
union of the whole. 

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected 
by the equal laws of a common government, finds, in the productions 
of the latter, great additional resources of maritime and commercial en- 
terprise, and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, 
in the same intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its 
agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its 
own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation 
invigorated ; and, while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and 
increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to 
the protection of a maritime strength to which itself is unequally adapt- 
ed. The East, in like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in 
the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and 
water will more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities 
which it brings from abroad or manufactures at home. The West de- 
rives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort ; and, 
what is, perhaps, of still greater consequence, it must, of necessity, owe 
the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to 
the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic 
side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as 
one nation. Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential 



188 APPENDIX. 

advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an 
apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be in- 
trinsically precarious. 

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and 
particular interest in union, all the parts combined can not fail to find, 
in the united mass of means and efforts, greater strength, greater re- 
source, proportionally greater security from external danger, a less fre- 
quent interruption of their peace by foreign nations ; and, what is of in- 
estimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those 
broils and wars between themselves which so frequently afflict neighbor- 
ing countries not tied together by the same governments ; which their 
own rivalshipa alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite 
foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embit- 
ter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown 
military establishments which, under any form of government, are in- 
auspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hos- 
tile to republican liberty ; in this sense it is that your union ought to be 
considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one 
ou^ht to endear to you the preservation of the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting 
and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a pri- 
mary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common 
government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. 
To listen to mere speculation, in such a case, were criminal. We are 
authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole, with the 
auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will af- 
ford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full 
experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affect- 
ing all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demon- 
strated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the 
patriotism of those who, in any quarter, may endeavor to weaken its 
bands. 

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union, it occurs 
as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished 
for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations — Northern 
and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may en- 
deavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests 
and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within 
particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other 
districts. You can not shield yourselves too much against the jealousies 
and heart-burnings which spring from these misrepresentations ; they 
tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together 
by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our western country have 
lately had a useful lesson on this head : they have seen, in the negotia- 
tion by the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, 
of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event 
throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the 
suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the General Govern- 
ment and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests in regard to 
the Mississippi ; they have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties, 
that with Great Britain and that with Spain, which secure to them every 






Washington's farewell address. 189 

thing they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, toward con- 
firming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely, for the 
preservation of these advantages, on the Union by which they were pro- 
cured ? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there 
are, who would sever them from their brethren, and connect them with 
aliens ? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the 
whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts, 
can be an adequate substitute ; they must inevitably experience the in- 
fractions and interruptions which all alliances, in all times, have ex- 
perienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon 
your first essay by the adoption of a Constitution of Government better 
calculated than your former for an intimate Union, and for the effica- 
cious management of your common concerns. This government, the 
offspring of your own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon 
full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its princi- 
ples, in the distribution of its powers uniting security with energy, and 
containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just 
claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, 
compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties en- 
joined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our 
political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their 
Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time 
exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, 
is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the 
right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every 
individual to obey the established government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and 
associations, under whatever plausible character, with the. real design to 
direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of 
the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, 
and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an arti- 
ficial and extraordinary force ; to put, in the place of the delegated will 
of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising 
minority of the community ; and, according to the alternate triumphs of 
different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill- 
concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of 
consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common councils, and 
modified by mutual interests. 

However combinations or associations of the above description may 
now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time 
and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and 
unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, 
and usurp for themselves the reins of government ; destroying, after- 
ward, the very engines which had lifted them to unjust dominion. 

Toward the preservation of your government, and the permanency of 
your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily dis- 
countenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also 
that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, how- 
ever specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in 
the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy 



190 APPENDIX. 

of the system, and thus to undermine what can not be directly over- 
thrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember 
that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of 
governments as of other human institutions ; that experience is the surest 
standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing Constitution 
of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hy- 
pothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless va- 
riety of hypothesis and opinion ; and remember, especially, that, for the 
efficient management of your common interests in a country so exten- 
sive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the 
security of perfect liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in 
such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its 
surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name where the gov- 
ernment is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine 
each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, 
and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights 
of person and property. 

1 have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, 
with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical dis- 
criminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn 
you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit 
of party generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its 
root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists, under dif- 
ferent shapes, in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or re- 
pressed ; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rank- 
ness, and is truly their worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by 
the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages 
and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a 
frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and 
permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradu- 
ally incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute 
power of an individual ; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing 
faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this dis- 
position to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public 
Liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which, never- 
theless, ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual 
mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and 
duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the Public Councils and enfeeble the Public 
Administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies 
and false alarms ; kindles the animosity of one part against another ; 
foments, occasionally, riot and insurrection. It opens the door to for- 
eign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the gov- 
ernment itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy 
and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of an- 
other. 

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks 
upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive the 



Washington's farewell address. 191 

spirit of Liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true ; and in 
governments of a monarchical cast, Patriotism may look with indulgence, 
if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular 
character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encour- 
aged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be 
enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And, there being con- 
stant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, 
to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uni- 
form vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of wann- 
ing, it should consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country 
should inspire caution, in those intrusted with its administration, to con- 
fine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in 
the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. 
The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the de- 
partments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a 
real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to 
abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy 
us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in 
the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into dif- 
ferent depositories, and constituting each the Guardian of the Public 
Weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments 
ancient and modern ; some of them in our country and under our own 
eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, 
in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the con- 
stitutional powers be, in any particular, wrong, let it be corrected by an 
amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there 
be no change by usurpation ;. for, though this in one instance may be 
the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free gov- 
ernments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbal- 
ance, in permanent evil, any partial or transient benefit which the use 
can at any time yield. 

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, 
Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that 
man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these 
great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of 
Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, 
ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace r.ll their 
connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, 
Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense 
of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of in- 
vestigation in Courts of Justice ? And let us with caution indulge the 
supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. What- 
ever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of 
peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that 
national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. 

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of 
popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force 
to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it 
can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the 
fabric? 



192 APPENDIX. 

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the 
general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a gov- 
ernment gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion 
should be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public 
credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible ; 
avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also 
that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much 
greater disbursements to repel it ; avoiding, likewise, the accumulation 
of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous ex- 
ertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars 
may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the 
burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these max- 
ims belongs to your Representatives, but it is necessary that public opin- 
ion should co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their 
duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that toward 
the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there 
must be taxes ; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less 
inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment, insepa- 
rable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice 
of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of 
the conduct of the Government in making it, and for a spirit of acquies- 
cence in the measures for obtaining revenue which the public exigencies 
may at arty time dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations ; cultivate peace and 
harmony with all. Keligion and Morality enjoin this conduct; and can 
it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it ? It will be worthy of a 
free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to 
mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always 
guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in 
the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan w r ould richly re- 
pay any temporary advantages, which might be lost by a steady adher- 
ence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent 
felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The experiment, at least, is recom- 
mended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas ! is it 
rendered impossible by its vices? 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that 
permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passion- 
ate attachments for others, should be excluded ; and that, in place of 
them, just and amicable feelings toward all should be cultivated. The 
nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred, or an habitual 
fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to 
its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty 
and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each 
more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of 
umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling 
occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, en- 
venomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and 
resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the 
best calculations of policy. The Government sometimes participates in 
the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would 



Washington's farewell address. 193 

reject ; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient 
to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister 
and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty 
of nations has been the victim. 

So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another pro- 
duces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating 
the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real 
common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, 
betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the 
latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to 
concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others, which is 
apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions, by unnecessarily 
parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, 
ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate in the parties from whom equal 
privileges are withheld ; and it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded 
citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility to betray 
or sacrifice the interest of their own country, without odium, sometimes 
even with popularity ; gilding with the appearances of a virtuous sense 
of obligation,' a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable 
zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, cor- 
ruption, or infatuation. 

As avenues to foreign influence, in innumerable ways, such attach- 
ments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent 
patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domes- 
tic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, 
to influence or awe the public councils ! Such an attachment of a small 
or weak toward a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the 
satellite of the latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to be- 
lieve me, fellow -citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be con- 
stantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence 
is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that 
jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial ; else it becomes the instrument 
of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Ex- 
cessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, 
cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve 
to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, 
who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become sus- 
pected and odious ; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and con- 
fidence of the people to surrender their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in 
extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political 
connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, 
let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none, or a very 
remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, 
the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, 
therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial 
ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary com- 
binations and collisions of her friendships or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a 
13 I 



10 i APPENDIX. 

different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient government, 
the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external 
annoyance ; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutral- 
ity we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected ; when 
belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon 
us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation ; when we may 
choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our 
own, to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, by interweaving our destiny 
with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in 
the toils of European ambition, interest, humor, or caprice? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any 
portion of the foreign world, so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty 
to do it ; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infi- 
delity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable 
to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. 
I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed m their genu- 
ine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise 
to extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on 
a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alli- 
ances for extraordinary emergencies. 

Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommend- 
ed by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy 
should hold an equal and impartial hand : neither seeking nor granting 
exclusive favors or preferences ; consulting the natural course of things ; 
diffusing and diversifying, by gentle means, the streams of commerce, 
but forcing nothing; establishing, with powers so disposed, in order to 
give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to 
enable the Government to support them, conventional rules of intercourse, 
the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but 
temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as 
experience and circumstances shall dictate ; constantly keeping in view 
that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from anoth- 
er ; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it 
may accept under that character ; that, by such acceptance, it may place 
itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, 
and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There 
can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from 
nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a 
just pride ought to discard. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and af> 
fectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting 
impression I could wish ; that they will control the usual current of the 
passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hith- 
erto marked the destiny of nations. But if I may even flatter myself 
that they may be productive of some partial benefit or some occasional 
good — that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party 
spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against 
the impostures of pretended patriotism — this hope will be a full recom- 
pense for the solicitude for your welfare by which they have been dictated. 



Washington's farewell address. 195 

How far, in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided by 
the principles which have been delineated, the public records and other 
evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To my- 
self, the assurance of my own conscience is that I have at least believed 
myself to be guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my Proclamation of 
the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned by your 
approving voice, and by that of your Kepresentatives in both Houses of 
Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, unin- 
fluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could 
obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances 
of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to 
take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should 
depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, and 
firmness. 

The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct it is 
not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe that, ac- 
cording to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from being 
denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all. 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without any 
thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on 
every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the 
relations of peace and amity toward other nations. 

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be 
referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a predom- 
inant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle 
and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interrup- 
tion to that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to 
give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes. 

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am un- 
conscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my de- 
fects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. 
Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or 
mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me 
the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence ; 
and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an 
upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to ob- 
livion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. . 

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by 
that fervent love toward it which is so natural to a man who views in it 
the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I 
anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise my- 
self to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the 
midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a 
free government, the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy re- 
ward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers. 

George Washington. 

United States, September Ylth, 1796. 



INDEX. 



Accumulation of property neces- 
sary to maintain civilizatiou, 56. 

American— his first duty, 14. 

politics, a fundamental 
truth in, 13. 

Annexation — principles on which 
it should proceed, 145. 

Apprentices, 106. 

Arrests can be made only on war- 
rants, 127. 

Bank, what is a, 69, 70. 
Bank-note, what is a, 74. 
Bank-notes not money, 74, 75. 
convenience of, 74. 
Barter, 57. 
Bonds, Government, 51. 

interest on, 52. 
Borrow, the poor benefited by the 

power to, 68. 
Borrower and lender, how to facili- 
tate the meeting of, 69. 
Bounty, a, injures the receiver, 97. 
a, to one is a loss to many, 
96. 

California, public spirit in, 18. 
Capital alarmed by strikes, 105. 
defined, 54. 

is accumulated savings, 62. 
loss of, is a loss to non-cap- 
italists, 72. 
made less abundant by usu- 
ry laws, 68. 
Caucus, 134. 
Centralization explained, 30. 

tendency toward, 
148. 
Change, tendency to political, 148. 
Citizen, how to be a good, 13. 
Citizens, duty of, 21. 
City government, 138. 

needlessly cum- 
brous, 140. 
Civil Rights Bill, 111. 
Civilization impossible without pre % - 
viously accumulated wealth, 56. 



Class distinctions mischievous, 38. 
Coining money explained, 60. 
Colonies, management of, 117. 
Commerce, example of benefits of 
unimpeded, 87. 
makes good allies, 145. 
not a secondary trans- 
action, 86. 
one of the great sources 

of wealth, 81. 
the agent of civiliza- 
tion, 84. 
Committee of the Whole, what it 

is, 159. 
Compulsory school-law, 114 ; what 

it should compel, 47. 
Confederation, powers of the, 118. 
Congress a representative body, 44. 
has power to regulate 

commerce, 88. 
of the Confederation es- 
sentially powerless, 118. 
what, can do, 121. 
Conservative spirit of the people, 

149. 
Constitution and Articles of Con- 
federation, differ- 
ence between, 120. 
and Laws the su- 
preme' law of the 
land, 123. 
secures freedom of 

exchange, 119. 
points of a good, 42. 
the, limits the pow- 
ers of the majority, 

Consumers benefited by unimpeded 

exchange, 82. 
Corporations described, 115. 

should be held in 
check, 115. 
Corruption, how to foster, 23. 

in governments inju- 
rious to laborers, 
64. 
Credit, use and misuse of, 71. 



198 



INDEX. 



Criminals a costly luxury, 49. 

Debt, National, is it a national 

blessing? 53. 
Debts, National, State, County, and 
City, origin of, 51. 
National or State, security 
for, 52. 
Decentralization, 29, 114, 141. 

extreme impor 

tancc of, 140. 

Deliberative assemblies, why rules 

are necessary for the 

conduct of, 149. 

necessity for dignity 

and order in, 150. 
organization of, 151. 
duties of presiding of- 
ficer of, 153. 
selection of commit- 
tees in, 153. 
order of business in, 
154. 
Deranging industries by interfer- 
ence, 94, 95. 
Despotism, convenience of a, 25. 
Dissatisfaction of laborers just, 107. 
Diversified industries, 89. 
Dollar, what is a, GO. 
Duties of a citizen, 128, 129. 

Education a means to intelligence, 
46. 
neglect of, a costly blun- 
der, 48. 
usesofanelcmentary,46. 
Elected, what officers should not 

be, 38, 39. 
Example contagious, 16. 
Exchange, property has no value 
without, 58. 
the source of value, 81. 
Executive, powers of the, to be lim- 
ited, 31. 
the, must be made re- 
sponsible, 31. 
the, what he is, 31. 

Farmers, Western, benefited by free 

capital, 68. 
Federal Government, powers and 
limitations of, 121, 122. 
revenues, 50. 
Forced loan, a greenback is a, 78. 
France, deplorable example of, 17. 
Free banking justified, 76. 

exchange benefits both par- 
ties, 82. 



Free government a political appli- 
cation of the Christian the- 
ory of life, iii. 

government, conditions nec- 
essary for, 17. 

government the cheapest and 
most stable, 24. 

government troublesome, 23. 

man, every American a, 127. 

schools apolitical institution, 
47. 

Gag law, the, 137. 

General laws, corporations should 
be formed under, 
116. 
necessity of, 141. 
Gold and silver, the use of, 59. 
Government is a pauper, 80. 

— its business like that 

of a merchant, 40. 
— its office in coining, 

60. 
object of, 55. 
parts of a, 28. 
primary functions of, 

17. 
secondary functions 

of, 21. 
—test of its merits, 30. 
what we owe to a good, 
147. 
Governments necessary evils, 15. 
Grand jury, 130. 
Greenbacks, 78. 
Gregarious, men are, 11. 

Home market, the, 92. 
House-rent — on what it depends, 
65. 

Impediments to exchange, natural 

and artificial, 83. 
Inalienable rights, list of, 127, 128. 
Indirect taxes — why allowed, 50. 
Industry, profitableness of, depends 

on the right to exchange, 119. 
Inefficiency resented by the people, 

137. 
Ingenuity at a discount, 97. 
Intemperance, evil fruits of, 110. 
Interest, the rent of money, 65. 
Interference by the Federal Govern 
ment, 18. 
government, with 
banks, 75. 

Judges ought not to be elected, 39. 



INDEX. 



199 



Judges, vice of electing, 139. 
Judiciary, elective, a blunder, 142. 
Jury service, 129. 
trial by, 130. 
Justice, nothing stable except, 149. 

Labor and capital, 105. 

Land, the poorest, used first, 109. 

Lands, waste, political importance 

of, 142. 
Law, the proper limits of, 15. 

the province of, 112. 
Law -makers — what they should 

bear in mind, 111. 
Laws adopted, great number of, 14. 
cover only a part of man's 

duty, 14. 
foolish, passed from the best 

motives, 14. 
prompt enforcement of, 19. 
reforms effected by repealing 

bad, 15. 
should be seldom changed, 43. 
"Legal tender," 60. 
Legislative bodies, how formed, 43. 
Liberty, meaning of, 14. 
License law, 114. 
" Local option," 113, 114. 
Local self-government, 121. 

subdivisions, political, 124. 

Machinery lives, 95. 
Majority rule, 41. 
Malthusian theory, the, 108. 
Manhood suffrage, 37. 
Manifest destiny, 145. 
Manufactures forbidden, 117. 

how, spring up natu- 
rally, 91. 
New England, 92. 
Market-places, 28. 
Mayor — his powers and responsibil- 
ities, 139. 
Merchant — his office in society, 58. 
Migration, 143. 

a remedy for low wages, 
106. 
Minority, effect of a powerful, 137. 
Minority — how its rights are pro- 
tected, 42. 
the first duty of a, 136. 
the, often right, 9. 
— when it must fail, 136. 
Miser, the, an enemy of hired labor- 
ers, 62. 
Money, the use of, 59. 
Money-getting not the first duty in 
life. 37. 



Monopolies, corporations are often, 

116.^ 
"More greenbacks," 78. 
Municipal powers and duties, 138. 

Nation, the Federal Government 
rules the, 123. 
the United States a, 122. 
Natural laws, influence of, in the 

settlement of a country, 90. 
Navigation Act, the, 117. 
Nominating conventions, 132. 
Non-interference theory, the, 23. 
Non-partisan government a fraud, 

35. 

One hundred millions, when we 
number, 146. 

"One-term principle" not a prin- 
ciple at all, 42. 

Over-production caused by boun- 
ties, 99. 

Paper money not money, 73. 
Parliamentary Rules, 149-162. 
Parties, political,how composed, 34. 
Party action, rules for, 135. 

government necessary, 34. 
politics, American, compara- 
tively honorable, 133. 
Penalties on exchange, 85. 
People, the, will punish inefficiency 

and corruption, 35. 
Petit jury, 131. 
Politics an enticing pursuit, 133. 

the importance of, in a free 
state, 9. 
Poor, false idea of the, 37. 

— how they are benefited by 

the safety of capital, 62, 63. 

Population — should it be checked ? 

108. 
Postmasters, the election of, would 

be a blunder, 39. 
Powers, division of, 28, 29. 
President— his power of appoint- 
ment, 39. 
Previous question, what it is, 156. 
Primary meetings, 132. 
Private enterprise should not be 

checked, 22. 
Prohibitory legislation, 111. 
Property, how, originates, 86. 
the fruit of labor, 55. 
the rights of, justified, 55. 
— what it is, 54. 
Public lands, 142. 

opinion, the, of knaves, 13. 



200 



INDEX. 



Quorum, a, how secured, 152. 
a, what it is, 152. 

Railroads, 27. 

Responsibility can be no greater 
than the author- 
ity given, 31. 
of the Executive, 
141. 

Rights, inalienable, list of, 127, 128. 

Ring, the New York, 18. 

Rulers easily corrupted, 19. 

Salt, free, 100. 

4k Savior of Society," the, a wretch- 
ed sham, 17. 
Scratching a ticket, duty of, 135. 
Selfishness causes despotic rule, 16. 

sure to fail, 101. 
Senate, power of the, over appoint- 
ments, 32. 
Sheriff should be appointed, 142. 
Shin-plasters, 73. 
Sinking Fund, what it is, 53. 
44 Slate," a political, 40, 134. 
Small industries make a people in- 
telligent, 89. 
notes, why, should be forbid- 
den, 75. 
Society, rights of, against liquor- 
sellers, 113. 
why, is formed, 11. 
Soul, what prudence dictates to a 

creature with a, 13. 
Souls, corporations have no, 115. 
Special legislation corrupts Legis- 
latures, 141. 
evil of, 116. 
Specie payments, 77. 
Stability a main condition of prog- 
ress, 35. 
importance of, 149. 
State governments, the authority 

and powers of, 124. 
States have power to confer the 

electoral franchise, 38. 
Strike, what is a ? 102. 
Striker, a, must keep the peace, 
102. 



Strikes, whether, have benefited 
workmen, 103. 

Subordinates, who ought to ap- 
point? 32. 

Surplus men, no, in the world, 106. 
sometimes necessary, 61. 

Taxes, direct and indirect, 49. 

why we pay, 48. 
Taxing power, abuse of the, 50. 
Telegraphing, 27. 
44 Tenure of office" law, absurdity 

of the, 33. 
Territorial organization, 143. 
Town meeting, 115. 

meetings described, 45. 
Trades-unions, interference of, with 
production, 103. 
should found new 
nations, 110. 

Union, advantages of the, 120. 
Usury laws injurious to poor mea, 
67, 69. 

Value, real, of a dollar, 60. 
Vested interests, 106. 
Vineland, example of, 115. 
Virtue necessary to maintain lib- 
erty, 16. 
Vote, who, and why, 36. 
Voters, independent, 34. 

Wages paid out of accumulated cap- 
ital, 63. 
what are, 61. 
Waste, all taxes are, 49. 
Wealth, duty of, 37. 

the result of industry and 
self-denial, 56. 
Wells-Eargo's Express, 22. 
Women, why,are denied the vote, 36. 
Working-men's right to strike, 102. 
Workmen not benefited by boun- 
ties, 99. 
Wrongs set forth in the Declaration 
of Independence, 118. 

44 Yankee Notions," 93. 



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